COMPLETE SEQUENCE OF THE 43-KB HUMAN RIBOSOMAL DNA REPEAT - ANALYSIS OF THE INTERGENIC SPACER

We have sequenced the remaining 12.4 kb of the 30-kb human ribosomal DNA intergenic spacer (IGS), which allows us to piece together both a complete IGS and a 43-kb rDNA unit. The sequence of the complete IGS reveals a collection of sequence motifs that can be correlated with functions known or expected to reside in the rDNA repeat: modulation of transcription, recombination initiation of DNA replication, and chromosomal organization. Finally, we find that IGS accumulates variation at a much higher rate than the transcribed regions. This finding leads us to correlate sequence character with types of mutation and sequence context with rate of mutation. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.