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QTLs for pre- and postweaning body weight and body composition in selected mice

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Abstract

In an intercross between the high-body-weight-selected mouse line NMRI8 and the inbred line DBA/2, we analyzed genetic effects on growth during the suckling period and after weaning during the juvenile phase of development. QTL mapping results indicated that a switch of gene activation might occur at the age of three weeks when animals are weaned. We found QTLs for body weight with major effects at the age of two and three weeks when animals are fed by their mothers, and QTLs with highest effects after weaning when animals have to live on their own under ad libitum access to food. Specific epistatic effects on body weight at two and three weeks and epistatic interaction influencing growth after weaning support this finding. QTL effects explained the greatest variance during puberty when animals grow fastest and become fertile. In the present study, all except one QTL effect for early body weight had dominance variance components. These might result from direct single-locus-dominant allelic expression, but also from the identified epistatic interaction between different QTLs that we have found for body weight at all ages. Beside body weight, body composition traits (muscle weight, reproductive fat weight, weight of inner organs) were analyzed. Sex-dimorphic QTLs were found for body weight and fat deposition. The identified early-growth QTLs could be the target of epigenetic modifications which might influence body weight at later ages.

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Acknowledgments

The German Research Foundation, Grant No. BR 1285/4, and the H. Wilhelm Schaumann Stiftung supported this work. C.S.H. acknowledges support from the BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council). Excellent technical assistance was provided by Hannelore Tychsen for DNA preparation and genotyping.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for the Biology of Farm Animals, Dummerstorf, 18196, Germany

    Gudrun A. Brockmann, Ersin Karatayli, Ulla Renne & Steffanie Karle

  2. Institute for Animal Sciences, Humboldt-University Berlin, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Gudrun A. Brockmann

  3. Roslin Institute (Edinburgh), Roslin, Midlothian, EH25 9PS, United Kingdom

    Chris S. Haley

  4. Department of Animal Science, Technical University Muenchen-Weihenstephan, Thalhausen, VTH, 85402, Germany

    Oswald J. Rottmann

  5. Unit Breeding Biology and Molecular Genetics, Institute for Animal Sciences, Humboldt University, Invalidenstrasse 42, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Gudrun A. Brockmann

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  1. Gudrun A. Brockmann
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  2. Ersin Karatayli
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  3. Chris S. Haley
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  4. Ulla Renne
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  6. Steffanie Karle
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Correspondence to Gudrun A. Brockmann.

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Brockmann, G.A., Karatayli, E., Haley, C.S. et al. QTLs for pre- and postweaning body weight and body composition in selected mice. Mamm Genome 15, 593–609 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00335-004-3026-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00335-004-3026-4

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