Identification of 29 rat genetic markers by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction

The number of genetic markers for the rat is still limited, in spite of its wide use in cancer research. To facilitate accurate mapping of both established and novel rat genetic markers, we constructed a linkage map by genotyping 105 F2 rats from ACI/N (ACI) and BUF/Nac (BUF) crosses. This map consists of 120 genetic markers that had been previously reported, mainly by two research groups, but had not been integrated. To find new genetic markers, the arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) was applied to detect polymorphic bands between ACI and BUF rats. After testing 56 single primers and 12 combinations of primers, we found 36 bands produced by 16 single primers and two combinations to be reliably polymorphic between ACI and BUF rats. The 36 bands were typed in the 105 F2 rats, and 29 of them could be linkage-mapped. AP-PCR is thus useful to detect new genetic markers in laboratory strains of rats.