Human lysosomal genes: arylsulfatase A and beta-galactosidase

The segregation of human lysosomal arylsulfatase A (ARS-A) has been evaluated in 50 primary hybrid clones derived from four separate fusions involving WBCs from two unrelated individuals and three hamster cell lines. ARS-A was expressed in the hybrids as a dimeric molecule of very similar or identical subunits. The expression of this enzyme was concordant with that of mitochondrial aconitase (ACON-M), an isozyme assigned to chromosome 22, in all 50 clones and with chromosome 22 segregation in all but one of the 29 karyotyped hybrids. No other human chromosome cosegregated with 22 in these clones, suggesting that this enzyme is specified in hybrid cells by a locus (or loci) on a single chromosome. beta-Galactosidase (B-GAL) expression was analyzed with two different electrophoresis systems and with a number of cell extract preparation methods in 39 of the primary hybrid clones. The B-GAL isozyme expressed in these hybrid cells was concordant with the expression of glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPX-1), an isozyme assigned to chromosome 3, in all 39 clones and with the segregation of this chromosome in 97% of the 29 karyotyped hybrids. These observations substantiate the prior tentative assignments of an ARS-A locus to chromosome 22 and a B-GAL locus to chromosome 3 (Bruns et al., 1978a, b). The implications of the chromosome assignments of loci for 12 human lysosomal enzymes for the cellular assembly of these organelles are discussed.