Title

Genetic Diversity in Leukemia-Prone Feral House Mice Infected with Murine Leukemia Virus

Authors

Catherine Rice, National Cancer Institute at Bethesda
Murray B. Gardner, University of Southern California
Stephen J. O'Brien, National Cancer Institute at BethesdaFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1980

Publication Title

Biochemical Genetics

Keywords

Allozyme polymorphism, Murine leukemia virus, Electrophoretic variants, Feral mice

ISSN

0006-2928

Volume

18

Issue/No.

9-10

First Page

915

Last Page

928

Abstract

The Lake Casitas (LC) mouse population located in southwestern Ventura County in California is unusual insofar as 85% of these mice are persistently viremic with congenitally transmitted murine leukemia virus (MuLV). The virus has been identified as the etiological agent responsible for lymphoma and neuromotor paralysis in large numbers of the mice. The majority of other wild mouse populations are generally free of infectious MuLV despite the presence of endogenous cellular DNA sequences homologous to infectious virus isolated from wild mice. Electrophoretic variation in 46 gene-enzyme systems was surveyed using mice from Lake Casitas and from a virus-negative population located in Bouquet Canyon (BC) approximately 40 miles from Lake Casitas. The LC and BC populations are genetically very similar to each other and to feral mouse populations previously studied in California and Europe. In the LC populations 24% of the loci are polymorphic compared to 17% in the BC population. The average heterozygosities for the LC and BC populations are 0.094 and 0.073, respectively. The large amount of genic variation in LC fails to support the concept of the derivation of the colony from a small number of founders. Tests for linkage disequilibrium and/or selective association of viremia and polymorphism at 15 loci located on nine mouse chromosomes did not reveal any nonrandom assortments. The viremic LC population, then, appears indistinguishable within the limits of experimental resolution from the virus-negative BC population in its population genetic structure.

Comments

©1980 Kluwer Academic Publishers-Plenum Publishers

NSUWorks Citation

Rice, Catherine; Murray B. Gardner; and Stephen J. O'Brien. 1980. "Genetic Diversity in Leukemia-Prone Feral House Mice Infected with Murine Leukemia Virus." Biochemical Genetics 18, (9-10): 915-928. doi:10.1007/BF00500124.

ORCID ID

0000-0001-7353-8301

ResearcherID

N-1726-2015

DOI

10.1007/BF00500124