Establishment and characterization of the MSKR inbred strain originated from Japanese wild mice (Mus musculus molossinus)

The absence of mitochondrial DNA diversity among common laboratory inbred mouse strains

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which exhibits a maternal inheritance and a high rate of evolution, has been widely used as a genetic marker when analyzing maternal lineage and inferring phylogenetic relationships among species. In this study, mtDNA variations among four classical (BALB/c, C3H, C57BL/6J and DBA/2) and three Chinese (TA2, 615 and T739) inbred strains of laboratory mice were analyzed by PCR-RFLP (polymerase chain reaction coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism) and PCR-SSCP (polymerase chain reaction coupled with single-stranded conformational polymorphism) techniques. PCR-RFLP analyses on 46 restriction sites revealed no variations in mtDNA D-loop (displacement loop), tRNA(Met+Glu+Ile) and ND3 (NADH dehydrogenase subunit 3) gene fragments in these strains. Furthermore, PCR-SSCP analyses demonstrated no variations in D-loop 5' and 3' end fragments in them. In view of enormous polymorphisms in mtDNA among mice and dramatic differences in nuclear genomes of these seven strains, our findings were surprising. However, in light of the maternal inheritance of mtDNA, the results indicate that the three Chinese strains, including TA2, T739 and 615, and the four classical strains, share a common maternal lineage.

A nucleotide substitution responsible for the tawny coat color mutation carried by the MSKR inbred strain of mice

"Tawny" is an autosomal recessive coat color mutation found in a wild population of Mus musculus molossinus. The inbred strain MSKR carries the mutation. The causative gene Mc1r(taw) of the tawny phenotype is the second recessive allele at the melanocortin 1 receptor locus and is dominant to the first recessive allele, "recessive yellow" (Mc1r(e)). The Mc1r(taw) gene has six nucleotide substitutions, and its forecasted transcript has three amino acid substitutions (i.e., V101A, V216A, W252C). Though the nucleotide substitutions leading to V101A and V216A exist in various mouse strains, the nucleotide substitution leading to W252C exists in only tawny-colored mice. Thus this substitution is considered to be responsible for the expression of the tawny coat color. The frequency of the allele having this nucleotide substitution was 9.21% in the wild M. m. molossinus population inhabiting Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, Japan, where the ancestral mice of the MSKR strain were captured.