A set of highly informative rat simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) markers and genetically defined rat strains.
BACKGROUND
The National Bio Resource Project for the Rat in Japan (NBRP-Rat) is focusing on collecting, preserving and distributing various rat strains, including spontaneous mutant, transgenic, congenic, and recombinant inbred (RI) strains. To evaluate their value as models of human diseases, we are characterizing them using 109 phenotypic parameters, such as clinical measurements, internal anatomy, metabolic parameters, and behavioral tests, as part of the Rat Phenome Project. Here, we report on a set of 357 simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) markers and 122 rat strains, which were genotyped by the marker set.


RESULTS
The SSLP markers were selected according to their distribution patterns throughout the whole rat genome with an average spacing of 7.59 Mb. The average number of informative markers between all possible pairs of strains was 259 (72.5% of 357 markers), showing their high degree of polymorphism. From the genetic profile of these rat inbred strains, we constructed a rat family tree to clarify their genetic background.


CONCLUSIONS
These highly informative SSLP markers as well as genetically and phenotypically defined rat strains are useful for designing experiments for quantitative trait loci (QTL) analysis and to choose strategies for developing new genetic resources. The data and resources are freely available at the NBRP-Rat web site 1.
Mashimo
Tomoji
T
Institute of Laboratory Animals, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan. tmashimo@anim.med.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Voigt
Birger
B
Tsurumi
Toshiko
T
Naoi
Kuniko
K
Nakanishi
Satoshi
S
Yamasaki
Ken-ichi
K
Kuramoto
Takashi
T
Serikawa
Tadao
T
D000818:Animals; D020296:Animals, Congenic / Q000235:genetics; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified / Q000235:genetics; D001947:Breeding; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers; D016678:Genome; D005838:Genotype; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D011922:Rats, Mutant Strains / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms
D005819:Genetic Markers