A high-resolution map of the chromosomal region surrounding the nude gene

The nude mutation produces the apparently disparate phenotypes of hairlessness and congenital thymic aplasia. These pleiotropic defects are the result of a single, autosomal recessive mutation that was previously mapped to a 9-cM region of murine chromosome 11 bounded by loci encoding the acetylcholine receptor beta subunit and myeloperoxidase. In this study, exclusion mapping of a panel of congenic nude strains was used to place the nude locus between the microsatellite loci D11Nds1 and D11Mit8. The relative distance from nude to each of these loci was determined by analyzing a large segregating cross. Thus, nude lies 1.4 cM distal to D11Nds1 and is 0.5 cM proximal to D11Mit8. Mice that carried recombinational breakpoints between D11Nds1 and D11Mit8 were further analyzed at the loci Evi-2 and D11Mit34, which placed nu 0.2 cM proximal to these markers. D11Nds1 and Evi-2/D11Mit34 thus define the new proximal and distal boundaries, respectively, for the nu interval. We also report the typing of the above microsatellite markers in the AKXD, AKXL, BXD, CXB, and BXH recombinant inbred strains, which confirmed the relative order and separation of loci in this region.