Experiment
395 markers were screened in 23 A/J x C57BL/6J (AXB) and C57BL/6J x A/J (BXA) recombinant inbred (RI) strains to identify loci associated with autonomy. Autonomy is defined as the abnormal behavior of an anesthetic limb including licking, scratching and self-injury. Denervation of the hind limb was accomplished by surgery of the sciatic and saphenous nerves. Animals were evaluated beginning 7 days after surgery. Parental strain A/J displays a high level of autonomy compared to parental strain C57BL/6J. A QTL significantly linked to autonomy, Pain1, mapped from approximately 39 cM - 44 cM on mouse Chromosome 15 with peak linkage at D15Mit28 (P=0.00002) at 43.7 cM. Pain1 maps close to Emo2, a QTL assiciated with fear, anxiety, and depression at 43.3 cM. Potential candidate genes for Pain1 include Pvalb, Bzrp, Galr3, Il2rb, Cacng2, Kcnj4, and Jrk.