Fine genetic and comparative mapping of the deafness mutation Ames waltzer on mouse chromosome 10

The Ames waltzer (av) mouse mutant is an autosomal recessive deafness mutation on mouse Chromosome 10. Previously, av had not been mapped relative to molecular markers. We have performed an intersubspecific backcross with Mus musculus castaneus and mapped microsatellite markers in this cross. Toothpick PCR on previously frozen tissue samples from offspring was used as an efficient strategy to screen a large number of animals quickly. In 1258 progeny tested we found three recombinants for each of the flanking markers D10Mit199 and D10Mit64. In addition, nine different genes (Ank3, Bcr, Gnaz, Tfam, Mif, Mmp11, Dcoh, Pyp, and Gstt2) were mapped and eliminated genetically as candidate genes for av. av had been discussed as a potential mouse model for the human deafness loci Usher syndrome type ID (USH1D) and DFNB12. Comparative mapping shows that av maps near an evolutionary break point and makes it unlikely that those loci are human homologues of av. A human homologue of av is predicted to lie either on 22q11.2 or on 10q21. The orientation of conserved linkage groups between these two human chromosomal regions relative to mouse Chromosome 10 was determined.