A comprehensive genome map of Iranians will be unveiled soon, said Dr. Hossein Najmabadi, head of the genetics research center at Tehran’s University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. “We are studying the genetic information of 800 Iranians from seven different regions in the country including the Persian Gulf islands,” he told IRNA. “So far, we have tracked 140 genetic abnormalities responsible for intellectual disability among the globally discovered 700-800.” Gene mapping describes the methods used to identify the locus of a gene and the distances between genes. The essence of all genome mapping is to place a collection of molecular markers onto their respective positions on the genome. Often, genome maps are used to help scientists find new genes.
