Close physical linkage of the murine Ren-1 and Ren-2 loci

In addition to the Ren-1 gene common to all mice, some inbred strains carry a second copy of the renin structural gene, Ren-2. These two loci are tightly linked genetically on mouse chromosome one. We have used pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to study the physical arrangement of the two renin genes in the inbred strain DBA/2. PFGE mapping permitted the construction of a restriction map of the Ren loci spanning roughly 120 Kb. The results indicate that the genes are transcribed in the same relative direction, that Ren-2 lies upstream relative to Ren-1, and that the respective coding sequences are separated by approximately 20 Kb.