小鼠全基因组关联研究(GWAS)芯片开发成功！

小鼠是实验室研究最多的生物之一。小鼠的全基因组测序已经完成，基因组注释和近种研究成果都十分丰富。由于小鼠的基因组大小、构成与人类很相似，因此它也是研究人类疾病很好的模式动物。通过大量小鼠实验分析其遗传多样性特征会获得大量的信息，这与人类全基因组关联研究十分相似。但是，这方面的研究却是一片空白。现在Churchill的团队通过高密度的基因芯片填补了这一空白。该芯片可以就近亲系的各类小鼠基因型进行统计分析。

该基因芯片的主要发明人来自美国缅因州著名的杰克森实验室。研究成果已发表于最新的Nature methods杂志。

原文出处：

Nature Methods 6, 663 - 666 (2009) Published online: 9 August 2009 | doi:10.1038/nmeth.1359

A customized and versatile high-density genotyping array for the mouse

Hyuna Yang1, Yueming Ding1, Lucie N Hutchins1, Jin Szatkiewicz1, Timothy A Bell2, Beverly J Paigen1, Joel H Graber1, Fernando Pardo-Manuel de Villena2 & Gary A Churchill1

We designed a high-density mouse genotyping array containing 623,124 single-nucleotide polymorphisms that captures the known genetic variation present in the laboratory mouse. The array also contains 916,269 invariant genomic probes targeted to functional elements and regions known to harbor segmental duplications. The array opens the door to the characterization of genetic diversity, copy-number variation, allele-specific gene expression and DNA methylation, and will extend the successes of human genome-wide association studies to the mouse.

1 The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine, USA.

2 Department of Genetics, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.