Interferon-induced guanylate-binding proteins: mapping of the murine Gbp-1 locus to chromosome 3

GBP-1 is the predominant species of a family of guanylate-binding proteins synthesized in mouse cells in response to interferons (IFNs) alpha, beta, or gamma. IFN inducibility of this 65,000-Da protein is controlled by alleles at a single autosomal locus, Gbp-1, with allele a encoding inducibility and allele b noninducibility. Here, we present evidence suggesting that both alleles occur in outbred populations of wild mice. Using recombinant inbred strains and classical linkage analysis of offspring of two-point and three-point backcrosses we demonstrate that Gbp-1 is linked to Adh-3 (encoding alcohol dehydrogenase C2) and VaJ (varitintwaddler-Jackson) located on the distal part of chromosome 3. The relevant recombination frequencies (RFs) (+/- SE) were 3.5 (+/- 1.1) and 11.7 (+/- 2.8)%, respectively. We further show that strain B6.C-H-23c/By(HW 53), congenic for a small segment of chromosome 3, carries the BALB/c alleles at both the Gbp-1 and the Adh-3 locus and not the alleles of the B6 background strain confirming the chromosomal location and close linkage of the two loci.