Quantitative trait loci for growth traits in C57BL/6J x DBA/2J mice

Quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for body weight and tail length are mapped in an F2 population of 927 C57BL/6J x DBA/2J mice. We test the concordance between the locations of the mapped QTLs with those detected by changes of marker frequency under artificial selection in a previous experiment with the same base population. The directions of effects of the QTLs are generally in agreement, and in many cases significant QTLs are found in similar map positions, but there are also discrepancies between the two experiments. There are indications of age-specific QTL effects on growth. For body weight traits, the genetic variation in the F2 appears to result from many loci with relatively small effects. For tail length at 10 weeks, however, a single QTL on Chromosome (Chr) 1 with a peak LOD score of approximately 33 contributes most of the genetic variation detected, changes the trait value by about 6%, and explains about 20% of the phenotypic variance of the trait.