Linkage map of mouse chromosome 17: localization of 27 new DNA markers

Chromosome 17 of the laboratory variant of the house mouse (Mus musculus L.), MMU17, has been studied extensively, largely because of its involvement in the control of immune response and embryonic as well as male germ cell differentiation. A detailed linkage map of this chromosome is therefore a highly desired goal. As the first step toward achieving this goal, we have isolated, using a LINE 1 repetitive sequence as a probe, 52 anonymous DNA clones from MMU17. Twenty-seven repetitive sequence-free probes isolated from these clones displayed restriction fragment length variation among common inbred strains and could be mapped with the help of recombinant inbred strains, congenic strains, F2 segregants, or intra-t recombinants. Together with markers identified previously, the new markers can be used to construct a map of MMU17 that contains 125 DNA loci. The markers are distributed over a length of approximately 71 cM, which probably represents the entire length of MMU17. Most of the markers reside in the proximal portion of the chromosome, which contains the t and H-2 complexes; this chromosomal region is now fairly well mapped. The distal region of MMU17, on the other hand, is populated by only a few, rather imprecisely mapped markers. Molecular maps are available for most of the H-2 complex and for parts of the t complex.