Genome scan for blood pressure loci in mice

Hypertension is a complex trait of unknown cause in humans, Mice of the inbred strain BPH/2 serve as a rodent model of human hypertension and display elevated blood pressure compared with the hypotensive strain BPL/1, An F2 intercross Of BPH/2 and BPL/1 and 2 backcrosses of BPL/1 with Mus spretus were used to perform interval linkage mapping for systolic blood pressure in a genome scan. Significant:linkage was observed in the F2s on chromosome 10 (logarithm of the odds score [LOD]=4.9) and on chromosome 13 in the M spretus backcross (LOD=3.3), with additional: suggestive LODs on chromosomes 2, 6, 8, and 18. In addition,several suggestive linkages were observed for phenotypes associated with human hypertension, Our study is the first reported genome-wide linkage scan for blood pressure-genes in the mouse.