Research Article

Esterase alleles of inbred mouse strains maintained in The Netherlands

J. Hilgers^a3 c1, O. von Deimling^a1, L. F. M. van Zutphen^a2, R. ten Berg^a3, R. Anand^a4 and M. F. W. Festing^a5

^a1 Institute of Pathology, University of Freidburg i. Br., Federal Republic of Germany

^a2 Department of Laboratory Animal Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands

^a3 Division of Tumor Biology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute (Antoni van Leeuwenhoekhuis), Plesmanlaan 121, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands

^a4 National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, India

^a5 MRC Experimental Embryology and Teratology Unit, Woodmansterne Road, Carshalton, England

Summary

Fifty-seven mouse strains were examined for genetic variation at 21 esterase loci. Three new alleles were found: Es-6^d in strain A/WySna, Es-ll^e in FTC/CpbU and Es-18^c in two WLL/BrA sublines. At most loci there was a single allele found in over 80% of strains, with one or two rare alleles. However, the Es-1, 3, 10, 13, 25 and 27 loci were much more polymorphic. Although several loci were linked on chomosomes 3, 8 and 9, linkage disequilibrium was only found between Es-5 and Es-11 (chromosome 8) and Es-26 and Es-27 (chromosome 3). There was also significant disequilibrium between Es-1 and 3, Es-1 and 10, and Es-3 and 10, which are on different chromosomes, suggesting that the 57 strains are not a random sample of inbred mouse strains. Fifty-four strains were closely related, with the Es-7^b, –17^a, –18^a, –23^c set of alleles, which are typical of Mus musculus domesticus. The three exceptional strains were MOL3 (Mus musculus molossinus), WLL/BrA (English–Norwegian origin) and TA2 (Chinese origin). There were 10 groups of strains which were identical at all loci. Sublines of the same strain were usually identical. Sometimes more distantly related strains, such as CBA/Bi, C3H/He, SM and DBA/Li, were identical, and in a few cases strains with no known common ancestry such as C58 and MAS were identical. Attempts to discriminate between a subset of 22 American and 15 European strains were unsuccessful, suggesting that the European strains add only in a quantitative manner to the gene pool of ‘laboratory mice’, whereas wild-derived strains such as MOL3 are genetically quite distinct from other laboratory mice.

(Received November 17 1986)

(Revised July 22 1987)

Correspondence:

^c1 Corresponding author.