Infection-dependent phenotypes in MHC-congenic mice are not due to MHC: can we trust congenic animals?

BMC Immunology
Erin E McClellandWayne K Potts

Abstract

Congenic strains of mice are assumed to differ only at a single gene or region of the genome. These mice have great importance in evaluating the function of genes. However, their utility depends on the maintenance of this true congenic nature. Although, accumulating evidence suggests that congenic strains suffer genetic divergence that could compromise interpretation of experimental results, this problem is usually ignored. During coinfection studies with Salmonella typhimurium and Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) in major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-congenic mice, we conducted the proper F2 controls and discovered significant differences between these F2 animals and MHC-genotype-matched P0 and F1 animals in weight gain and pathogen load. To systematically evaluate the apparent non-MHC differences in these mice, we infected all three generations (P0, F1 and F2) for 5 MHC genotypes (b/b, b/q and q/q as well as d/d, d/q, and q/q) with Salmonella and TMEV. Infected P0 MHC q/q congenic homozygotes lost significantly more weight (p = 0.02) and had significantly higher Salmonella (p < 0.01) and TMEV (p = 0.02) titers than the infected F2 q/q homozygotes. Neither weight nor pathogen load differences were present in...Continue Reading

References

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Mar 26, 2003·Infection and Immunity·Erin E McClellandWayne K Potts
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Citations

Nov 13, 2004·Immunogenetics·Tamio Ohno, Masahiko Nishimura
Nov 8, 2006·Immunogenetics·Alan WillseGary K Beauchamp
Jul 16, 2008·Immunogenetics·Jeb P OwenBradley A Mullens
Feb 11, 2012·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Jason L KubinakWayne K Potts
Nov 16, 2019·BMC Evolutionary Biology·Magdalena Herdegen-Radwan

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
transgenic
PCR
electrophoresis

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