Confirmation of alcohol preference quantitative trait loci in the replicate high alcohol drinking and low alcohol drinking rat lines.
OBJECTIVE
Selective breeding has been employed to develop replicate high-alcohol-drinking (HAD1 and HAD2) and low-alcohol-drinking (LAD1 and LAD2) rat lines from the heterogeneous N/Nih rat. Within-family selection and a rotational breeding design were used to discourage inbreeding (Li et al., 1993). A genome screen was previously performed using 459 HAD1xLAD1 F2 progeny to identify quantitative trait loci (QTLs) on rat chromosomes 5, 10, 12 and 16 that contribute to alcohol preference and consumption in these non-inbred rat models of alcoholism.


METHODS
To confirm these QTLs in the replicate lines, 16 HAD2 and 16 LAD2 rats were genotyped for microsatellite markers within each of these QTL intervals.


RESULTS
Review of the genotypic data support confirmation of the QTLs on chromosomes 5 and 10; several markers in the QTL region display different alleles in the HAD2 and LAD2 rats, suggesting linkage disequilibrium between the microsatellite markers and the QTL. Although the QTL on chromosome 12 had the highest LOD score in the HAD1 and LAD1 studies, little evidence supported confirmation of this QTL based on the genotyped markers.


CONCLUSIONS
Further evaluation of each of these QTL regions is ongoing in a sample of HAD2xLAD2 F2 progeny currently being generated that will be used to assess the evidence of linkage in each of these QTL regions.
Foroud
Tatiana
T
Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine, 975 West Walnut Street (IB-155), Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. tforoud@iupui.edu
Ritchotte
Aimee
A
Spence
John
J
Liu
Lixiang
L
Lumeng
Lawrence
L
Li
Ting-Kai
TK
Carr
Lucinda G
LG
D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D001947:Breeding / Q000379:methods; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D008126:Lod Score; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013045:Species Specificity