Assignment of maltase glucoamylase (MGAM) to pig chromosome 2 (2q21) by fluorescence in situ hybridization and confirmation by genetic mapping.

Maltase glucoamylase, one of the major constituents of the intestinal microvillar membrane (Norén et al., 1986), together with sucrase-isomaltase, has a role in the final digestion of starch. It has been hypothesized that human maltase glucoamylase activity serves as an alternative pathway for starch digestion when lumenal alpha-amylase activity is reduced as a result of immaturity or malnutrition and that maltase glucoamylase plays a unique role in the digestion of malted dietary oligosaccharides (Nichols et al., 1998). The human MGAM gene has been cloned, sequenced and located to chromosome 7 (HSA7) (Nichols et al., 1998), but as yet, the porcine MGAM gene has not been mapped. We report the localization of the porcine MGAM gene to porcine (SSC) chromosome 2 by fluorescent in situ hybridization and linkage analysis. This assignment represents the first evidence of homology between SCC2 and HSA7.