The DNA sequence of the human X chromosome.
Ross MT., Grafham DV., Coffey AJ., Scherer S., McLay K., Muzny D., Platzer M., Howell GR., Burrows C., Bird CP., Frankish A., Lovell FL., Howe KL., Ashurst JL., Fulton RS., Sudbrak R., Wen G., Jones MC., Hurles ME., Andrews TD., Scott CE., Searle S., Ramser J., Whittaker A., Deadman R., Carter NP., Hunt SE., Chen R., Cree A., Gunaratne P., Havlak P., Hodgson A., Metzker ML., Richards S., Scott G., Steffen D., Sodergren E., Wheeler DA., Worley KC., Ainscough R., Ambrose KD., Ansari-Lari MA., Aradhya S., Ashwell RIS., Babbage AK., Bagguley CL., Ballabio A., Banerjee R., Barker GE., Barlow KF., Barrett IP., Bates KN., Beare DM., Beasley H., Beasley O., Beck A., Bethel G., Blechschmidt K., Brady N., Bray-Allen S., Bridgeman AM., Brown AJ., Brown MJ., Bonnin D., Bruford EA., Buhay C., Burch P., Burford D., Burgess J., Burrill W., Burton J., Bye JM., Carder C., Carrel L., Chako J., Chapman JC., Chavez D., Chen E., Chen G., Chen Y., Chen Z., Chinault C., Ciccodicola A., Clark SY., Clarke G., Clee CM., Clegg S., Clerc-Blankenburg K., Clifford K., Cobley V., Cole CG., Conquer JS., Corby N., Connor RE., David R., Davies J., Davis C., Davis J., Delgado O., Deshazo D., Dhami P., Ding Y., Dinh H., Dodsworth S., Draper H., Dugan-Rocha S., Dunham A., Dunn M., Durbin KJ., Dutta I., Eades T., Ellwood M., Emery-Cohen A., Errington H., Evans KL., Faulkner L., Francis F., Frankland J., Fraser AE., Galgoczy P., Gilbert J., Gill R., Glöckner G., Gregory SG., Gribble S., Griffiths C., Grocock R., Gu Y., Gwilliam R., Hamilton C., Hart EA., Hawes A., Heath PD., Heitmann K., Hennig S., Hernandez J., Hinzmann B., Ho S., Hoffs M., Howden PJ., Huckle EJ., Hume J., Hunt PJ., Hunt AR., Isherwood J., Jacob L., Johnson D., Jones S., de Jong PJ., Joseph SS., Keenan S., Kelly S., Kershaw JK., Khan Z., Kioschis P., Klages S., Knights AJ., Kosiura A., Kovar-Smith C., Laird GK., Langford C., Lawlor S., Leversha M., Lewis L., Liu W., Lloyd C., Lloyd DM., Loulseged H., Loveland JE., Lovell JD., Lozado R., Lu J., Lyne R., Ma J., Maheshwari M., Matthews LH., McDowall J., McLaren S., McMurray A., Meidl P., Meitinger T., Milne S., Miner G., Mistry SL., Morgan M., Morris S., Müller I., Mullikin JC., Nguyen N., Nordsiek G., Nyakatura G., O'Dell CN., Okwuonu G., Palmer S., Pandian R., Parker D., Parrish J., Pasternak S., Patel D., Pearce AV., Pearson DM., Pelan SE., Perez L., Porter KM., Ramsey Y., Reichwald K., Rhodes S., Ridler KA., Schlessinger D., Schueler MG., Sehra HK., Shaw-Smith C., Shen H., Sheridan EM., Shownkeen R., Skuce CD., Smith ML., Sotheran EC., Steingruber HE., Steward CA., Storey R., Swann RM., Swarbreck D., Tabor PE., Taudien S., Taylor T., Teague B., Thomas K., Thorpe A., Timms K., Tracey A., Trevanion S., Tromans AC., d'Urso M., Verduzco D., Villasana D., Waldron L., Wall M., Wang Q., Warren J., Warry GL., Wei X., West A., Whitehead SL., Whiteley MN., Wilkinson JE., Willey DL., Williams G., Williams L., Williamson A., Williamson H., Wilming L., Woodmansey RL., Wray PW., Yen J., Zhang J., Zhou J., Zoghbi H., Zorilla S., Buck D., Reinhardt R., Poustka A., Rosenthal A., Lehrach H., Meindl A., Minx PJ., Hillier LW., Willard HF., Wilson RK., Waterston RH., Rice CM., Vaudin M., Coulson A., Nelson DL., Weinstock G., Sulston JE., Durbin R., Hubbard T., Gibbs RA., Beck S., Rogers J., Bentley DR.
The human X chromosome has a unique biology that was shaped by its evolution as the sex chromosome shared by males and females. We have determined 99.3% of the euchromatic sequence of the X chromosome. Our analysis illustrates the autosomal origin of the mammalian sex chromosomes, the stepwise process that led to the progressive loss of recombination between X and Y, and the extent of subsequent degradation of the Y chromosome. LINE1 repeat elements cover one-third of the X chromosome, with a distribution that is consistent with their proposed role as way stations in the process of X-chromosome inactivation. We found 1,098 genes in the sequence, of which 99 encode proteins expressed in testis and in various tumour types. A disproportionately high number of mendelian diseases are documented for the X chromosome. Of this number, 168 have been explained by mutations in 113 X-linked genes, which in many cases were characterized with the aid of the DNA sequence.