Polymorphism of Unique Noncoding DNA Sequences in Wild and Laboratory Mice

Felipe Figueroa ¹, Masanori Kasahara ², Herbert Tichy ¹, Esther Neufeld ³, Uzi Ritte ³, and Jan Klein ¹

¹ Max-Planck-Institut für Biologie, Abteilung Immungenetik, D-7400 Tübingen, Federal Republic of Germany
² Department of Microbiology, University of Miami, Miami, Florida 33101
³ Department of Genetics, Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel

Two DNA probes, D17Tul and D17Tu2, were isolated from a genomic DNA library containing only two mouse chromosomes, one of which is chromosome 17, carrying the major histocompatibility complex (H-2), as well as the t complex genes. The D17Tul probe was mapped to the centromeric region of chromosome 17 and the D17Tu2 probe to the S region of the H-2 complex. Neither of the two probes appeared to detect any genes, but both contained unique, nonrepetitive sequences. Typing of DNA obtained from a large panel of mice revealed the presence of four D17Tul patterns in inbred mouse strains, one very common, one less common, and two present in one strain each. The two common patterns could not be detected in appreciable frequencies in the European wild mice tested (one of the two patterns was, however, found in Australian wild mice). Conversely, the patterns found frequently in European wild mice are absent in the laboratory mice. We therefore conclude that wild mice from the sampled regions of Europe could not have provided the ancestral stocks from which inbred strains were derived. Only one D17Tul pattern was found in all the populations of Mus musculus tested, while eight patterns were found in Mus domesticus, with virtually all the populations being polymorphic. We suggest that this difference reflects different modes in which the two species colonized Europe. The distribution of the D17Tu2 patterns in inbred strains correlates with the distribution of H-2 haplotypes.