International Mammalian Genome Society

E17 Development of Two Sets of Genome Wide Overlapping Concentic Mouse Strains

Iakoubova, O., Olsson, C., Dains, K., Kalcheva, I.,* Choi, J., Andalibi, A., Bently, G., and West, D. B. Parke-Davis Laboratory for Molecular Genetics, Alameda, CA, USA; *University of California, San Diego

Two sets of genome wide congenic mouse strains are being developed using C57BL/6J as a common background strain and DBA/2J or CAST/Ei as donor strains. These strain pairs were chosen because of the phenotypic variation between C57BL/6J and DBA/2J and the sequence polymorphism between C57BL/6J and CAST/Ei. Average size of an introgressed segment is 20 - 30 cM. Approximately 70 congenic lines for each donor strain (including consomics) are under construction and are being bred to homozygosity. We used marker-assisted serial backcrossing with approximately 100 SSLP markers spanning the mouse genome at each generation. The males at the N2, N3, and N4 generations with the lowest overall heterozygosity were subsequently harem bred. Selected progenitors have overlapping introgressed segments sharing at least one SSLP marker from the donor strain. Genotyping of progeny from the final backcross was performed using 350 SSLP markers at approximately 5 cM density.

These strain sets will be available for collaborative research and can be useful tools for dissection of polygenic traits, to study gene interactions (combinatorial congenics) and elucidate potential suppressors or activators in a given biochemical pathway.