Multiple blood pressure QTL on rat chromosome 1 defined by Dahl rat congenic strains

A series of congenic strains were constructed in which segments of chromosome (chr) 1 from Lewis (LEW) rats were introgressed into the Dahl salt-sensitive (S) strain. Three blood pressure quantitative trait loci (QTL) were defined. Two of these (QTL 1a and QTL 1b) were closely linked in the region between 1q31 and 1q35. The third blood pressure QTL (QTL region 2) was close to the centromere between 1p11 and 1q12, which includes the candidate gene Slc9a3 for sodium/hydrogen exchange. The blood pressure QTL 1a and QTL 1b defined here overlap significantly with QTL for disease phenotypes of renal failure, stroke, ventricular mass, and salt susceptibility defined in other rat strains, implying that these disease phenotypes and our blood pressure phenotype have causes in common. QTL 1b also corresponded approximately with a blood pressure QTL described on human chr 15. The QTL region 2 corresponded approximately with blood pressure QTL described on mouse chr 10 and human chr 6.