Experiment
Linkage analysis was performed on 448 animals from 38 recombinant congenic strains (RCS) derived from C57BL/6J and A/J to identify QTLs associated with prepulse inhibition (PPI) and acoustic startle response (ASR). 625 microsatellite markers at an average spacing of 2.6 cM were used in the genome scan. Deficits in PPI are thought to cause some symptoms of schizophrenia. Progenitor strain C57BL/6J exhibits high PPI whereas progenitor strain A/J exhibits low PPI. The mean ASR does not differ between C57BL/6J and A/J but showed significant difference in the recombinant congenic strains.
Provisional QTLs associated with PPI but not acoustic startle response (ASR) mapped to mouse Chromosomes 3(D3Mit266, 51.5 cM), 5 (D5Mit338, 59 cM), 7 (D7Mit117, 11 cM), and 16 (D16Mit57, 21.51 cM). A/J-derived alleles confer decreased PPI at the chromosome 3 locus and C57BL/6J-derived alleles confer decreased PPI at the chromosome 7 locus. Inheritance of C57BL/6J-derived alleles at both the chromosome 5 and chromosome 16 loci result in significantly increased PPI.
Provisional QTLs associated with both PPI and ASR mapped to mouse Chromosomes 2 (D2Mit280, 81.7 cM) and 11 (D11Mit67, 57 cM). The chromosome 2 locus is broad and spans from 71 cM to 103 cM. A/J-derived alleles confer decreased PPI at the chromosome 2 locus. A/J-derived alleles confer increased PPI at the chromosome 11 locus.
15 provisional QTLs were identified which are associated only with ARS.
Analysis Tools