A high-resolution genetic and physical map of a mouse coat abnormality locus (Uncv)

More than a hundred of loci (genes) affect the development of mouse and human hair. A locus of Uncv (uncovered) has been confirmed to be involved in hairlessness for homozygote and sparse hair for heterozygote. Except hairlessness(or called uncovered coat), the homozygote was also accompanied by growth retard and puberty delay. Identification of the mutation in the gene will be important for understanding the related diseases in human. Although the uncovered locus (Uncv) has been mapped to the mouse distal chromosome 11(Chr11), the high-resolution genetic map and physical map of the locus has not been created. In this study, 2074 F2 mouse populations from backcross [BALB/c (Uncv/Uncv) x C3H (+/+)]x BALB/c (Uncv/Uncv) and [BALB/c (Uncv/Uncv) x C57BL/6 (+/+)] x BALB/c(Uncv/ Uncv) were genotyped using 16 polymorphic markers with an approximately 20 cM interval on mouse distal Chr11. By genetic linkage analysis, Uncv locus was mapped to an approximately 1.4 cM interval between markers D11Mit337 and D11Mit338 with the following order: proximal D11Mit338-D11Mit203 (Uncv)-D11Mit103 -D11Mit337 distal on mouse Chr11. And then, a contig of 35 BACs representing the Uncv-containing region was constructed. The contig covered 800-1000 kb region flanked by 189K10-SP6 and D11Mit103. Together, we have constructed the high-resolution genetic map and detailed physical map of the Uncv region. This will facilitate the identification of the Uncv loci.