LINE-1 repetitive DNA probes for species-specific cloning from Mus spretus and Mus domesticus genomes.

Mus domesticus and Mus spretus mice are closely related subspecies. For genetic investigations involving hybrid mice, we have developed a set of species-specific oligonucleotide probes based on the detection of LINE-1 sequence differences. LINE-1 is a repetitive DNA family whose many members are interspersed among the genes. In this study, library screening experiments were used to fully characterize the species specificity of four M. domesticus LINE-1 probes and three M. spretus LINE-1 probes. It was found that the nucleotide differences detected by the probes define large, species-specific subfamilies. We show that collaborative use of such probes can be employed to selectively detect thousands of species-specific library clones. Consequently, these probes could be exploited to monitor and access almost any given species-specific region of interest within hybrid genomes.