Submitted on July 15, 2007
Accepted on November 22, 2007
Evaluation of LEXF/FXLE rat recombinant inbred strains for the genetic dissection of complex traits
Birger Voigt1, Takashi Kuramoto1, Tomoji Mashimo1, Toshiko Tsurumi1, Yoshiyuki Sasaki2, Ryoji Hokao2, and Tadao Serikawa1*
1 Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
2 Institute of Animal Reproduction, Kasumigaura, Ibaraki, Japan
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: serikawa{at}anim.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
Recombinant inbred (RI) strains are formed from an outcross between two well-characterized inbred stains followed by at least 20 generations of inbreeding. RI strains can be utilized for the analysis of many complex phenotypic traits. The LEXF/FXLE RI strain set consists of 34 RI strains derived by reciprocal crossing of LE/Stm and F344/Stm. Here, we report on genetic dissections of complex traits using this RI set and their parental strains. We have developed strain distribution patterns for 232 informative SSLP markers. The framework map covers the rat genome except for chromosome Y. Seventy-six phenotype parameters, which included physiological and behavioral traits, were examined for these recombinant inbred lines. The QTL analysis of these parameters revealed 27 significant and 91 suggestive quantitative trait loci, illustrating the potential of this RI resource for the detection of underlying gene functions for various phenotypes. Although this RI set was originally developed to study susceptibility toward chemical-induced tumors, it has been shown to be equally powerful for a wide spectrum of traits. The LEXF/FXLE RI strains have been deposited at the National Bio Resource Project for the Rat in Japan and are maintained under SPF conditions. They are available at http://www.anim.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp/nbr.
