X-ray hypersensitivity in the LEA rat: genetic linkage analysis of responsible loci

The LEA rat was established from a Long-Evans rat closed colony as the control strain of the LEC rat, which is reported to exhibit several mutant phenotypes such as hepatic disorder (hts), blockage of the T cell differentiation (thid) and X-ray hypersensitivity (xhs1 and xhs2). Here we report that the LEA rat is hypersensitive to X-rays to a similar degree as the LEC rat, although it is normal with respect to the hts and thid phenotypes. We further performed genetic linkage analysis of X-ray hypersensitivity in the LEA rat. The quantitative trait loci (QTL) linkage analysis revealed that xhs1 but not xhs2 is the locus responsible for X-ray hypersensitivity in the LEA rat.