Experiment
This study reports on the dissection of genetic and functional aspects of susceptibility to Leishmania major infecton using two contrasting inbred strains BALB/cHeA (susceptible) and STS/A (resistant) and a resistant Recombinant Congenic (RC) Strain, CcS-5/Dem, which carries a random set of 12.5% of genes from the strain STS and 87.5% genes from the susceptible strain BALB/c. The CcS5/Dem strain was highly resistant despite its overall genetic similarity to BALB/c. The genetic dissection of resistance of the RC strain CcS5 was presented in this study.
The F2 hybrids between (BALB/c CcS5) were genotyped with microsatellite markers covering the 12 STS derived segments on eight chromosomes. Linkage analysis of different parameters of the disease revealed five novel loci, Lmr3 - Lmr7, affecting the response to the infection, each associated with a different combination of pathological symptoms and immunological reactions.
Lmr6, leishmaniasis resistance 6, mapped to Chr 11 in linkage with marker D11Mit62, corrected p=0.00083. The BALB/c allele at this locus was associated with higher Il-14 levels.
Lmr7, leishmaniasis resistance 7, mapped to Chr 17 with peaks at D17Mit19, corrected p=0.021 and D17Mit30, corrected p=0.063. Lmr7 was associated with proliferation of spleen cells in infected mice. High proliferation was associated with the STS/A allele at this locus. [Table 2 Cont].
Analysis Tools