PHYSICAL MAPPING OF A REGION IN THE SOYBEAN (GLYCINE-MAX) GENOME CONTAINING DUPLICATED SEQUENCES

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was used to study a cluster of molecular markers in the soybean genome. There were 550 kb per centimorgan (cM) in the cluster, which is close to the calculated average for the whole genome. The analysis was complicated by the presence of duplicated sequences, and some ambiguities arising from this were resolved by using second-dimension conventional electrophoresis to relate physical maps to the RFLP map of soybean. The results show that there is a high degree of conservation of 'rare cutter' sites between homoeologous regions. Finally, PFGE can confirm physical linkage of monomorphic copies of markers, which can aid in the study and comparison of homoeologous regions that are invisible to RFLP analysis.