Utilization of marker-assisted congenics to map two blood pressure quantitative trait loci in Dahl rats

A broad Chromosome (Chr) 10 region of the Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rat was shown by linkage and the use of congenic strains to contain a blood pressure (BP) quantitative trait locus (QTL). To further narrow down the region harboring the QTL, four congenic strains carrying smaller segments were made by replacing various segments of the S rats with the homologous segments of the Lewis (LEW) rats. The construction of these congenic strains was facilitated by a genome-wide marker screening. One congenic strain, assigned as S.L4, showed a BP-lowering effect, and the region harboring a BP QTL, designated QTL1, is localized to a segment of about 15 cM. Two other strains, assigned as S.L2 and S.L5, contained an overlapping segment, and both showed a BP-lowering effect. In contrast, the fourth congenic strain, assigned as S.L1, contained a smaller and shared fragment with S.L2 and S.L5, but it did not have a BP-lowering effect. Deducing from the segment in common in S.L2 and S.L5, and not shared between S.L1 and both congenic strains S.L2 and S.L5, the region harboring a QTL, designated as QTL2, was narrowed to about 12 cM. The current work showed the general applicability of the 'speed congenic' approach to map and fine-map BP QTL.