A high-resolution multistrain haplotype analysis of laboratory mouse genome reveals three distinctive genetic variation patterns.

Understanding of the structure and the origin of genetic variation patterns in the laboratory inbred mouse provides insight into the utility of the mouse model for studying human complex diseases and strategies for disease gene mapping. In order to address this issue, we have constructed a multistrain, high-resolution haplotype map for the 99-Mb mouse Chromosome 16 using approximately 70,000 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers derived from whole-genome shotgun sequencing of five laboratory inbred strains. We discovered that large polymorphic blocks (i.e., regions where only two haplotypes, thus one SNP conformation, are found in the five strains), large monomorphic blocks (i.e., regions where the five strains share the same haplotype), and fragmented blocks (i.e., regions of greater complexity not resembling at all the first two categories) span 50%, 18%, and 32% of the chromosome, respectively. The haplotype map has 98% accuracy in predicting mouse genotypes in two other studies. Its predictions are also confirmed by experimental results obtained from resequencing of 40-kb genomic sequences at 21 distinct genomic loci in 13 laboratory inbred strains and 12 wild-derived strains. We demonstrate that historic recombination, intra-subspecies variations and inter-subspecies variations have all contributed to the formation of the three distinctive genetic signatures. The results suggest that the controlled complexity of the laboratory inbred strains may provide a means for uncovering the biological factors that have shaped genetic variation patterns.