DNA markers in primate models of human disease.

Nonhuman primates are particularly useful as animal models for common human diseases in which both genetic and environmental factors play important roles. The recent development of DNA markers (restriction fragment length polymorphisms, RFLPs) greatly increases the power of linkage analysis to detect major genes that affect quantitative phenotypes, including those related to diseases. This paper summarizes a strategy for using RFLPs in linkage analysis of baboon pedigrees to identify genes that control lipoprotein phenotype, which in turn is predictive of susceptibility to atherosclerosis. This strategy also can be applied to other common human diseases for which nonhuman primate models exist.