Evolutionary conservation of linkage groups: additional evidence from murid and cricetid rodents.

In Mus musculus, family Muridae, the glucosephosphate isomerase (Gpi-l), pink-eyed dilution (p), albinism (c), and beta-type globin (Hbb) loci are known to be linked in the order Gpi-l-p-c-Hbb. In Rattus norvegicus, another murid rodent, the p, c, and Hbb loci are known to be linked in the same order and with similar recombination frequencies. In Peromyscus maniculatus, family Cricetidae, it was previously known that p and c are linked and by analogy to Mus musculus that linkage group should be bounded by Gpi-l near p and by a beta-globin locus near c. Linkage has now been established between Gpi-l and the Hbe globin locus in Peromyscus. However, the observed recombination frequency in Peromyscus (16.3%) is significantly lower than in Mus, suggesting that perhaps a chromosomal inversion has occurred during the evolutionary divergence of the two rodent families. Linkage relationships were also tested between the Hbc1, Hbd1, and Hbe1 globin variants. Hbc1 (presumably an alpha-type globin) segregated independently from Hbd1 and Hbe1 (presumably beta-type globins). No recombination was observed between Hbd1 and Hbe1. Those two globin genes may be alleles at a single locus, although circumstantial evidence suggests that they represent tightly linked duplicate loci.