Objective: The genetic divergence of inbred Dahl salt-sensitive (SS/Jr) rats from inbred Dahl salt-resistant (SR/Jr) rats and various other inbred strains was measured.
Design: Structural differences in DNA between strains were evaluated.
Methods: Genetic variants were sought (1) by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, using 19 DNA probes, (2) by the polymerase chain reaction around microsatellites and (3) by DNA sequencing.
Results: It was estimated that 1 in 1532 bases of DNA were different between the SS/Jr and SR/Jr strains. In comparing SS/Jr and SR/Jr rats, it was also observed that one DNA probe in 10 will yield multiple RFLP, presumably as the result of large insertion/deletion events. A comparison of SS/Jr rats with seven other inbred strains showed that the percentage of loci that carry alleles different from SS/Jr rats varies from about 23% for Albino Surgery rats to 71% for Brown Norway rats.
Conclusions: Although the SR/Jr strain is an appropriate contrasting strain for the genetic analysis of hypertension in SS/Jr rats, a genetic analysis involving crosses of SS/Jr rats and unrelated inbred strains is also likely to be useful in identifying genes that cosegregate with blood pressure because more informative genetic markers will be available than in a cross of SS/Jr with SR/Jr rats.