title: Bioinformatics toolbox for narrowing rodent quantitative trait loci.
abstract: Quantitative trait locus (QTL) analysis is a powerful method for localizing disease genes, but identifying the causal gene remains difficult. Rodent models of disease facilitate QTL gene identification, and causal genes underlying rodent QTL are often associated with the corresponding human diseases. Recently developed bioinformatics methods, including comparative genomics, combined cross analysis, interval-specific and genome-wide haplotype analysis, followed by sequence and expression analysis, each facilitated by public databases, provide new tools for narrowing rodent QTLs. Here we discuss each tool, illustrate its application and generate a bioinformatics strategy for narrowing QTLs. Combining these bioinformatics tools with classical experimental methods should accelerate QTL gene identification.
authors.affiliation: The Jackson Laboratory, 600 Main St, Bar Harbor, ME 04609, USA.
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: DiPetrillo
authors.forename: Xiaosong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ioannis M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Stylianou
authors.forename: Beverly
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Paigen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019295:Computational Biology; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D023281:Genomics; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci; D051381:Rats