THE GENE RESPONSIBLE FOR LEC HEPATITIS, LOCATED ON RAT CHROMOSOME-16,IS THE HOMOLOG TO THE HUMAN WILSON-DISEASE GENE

We identified the rat homolog to the human Wilson disease (WD) gene as the gene responsible for hepatitis (hrs) in the Long Evans Cinnamon ( LEC) rat. A genetic study using fifty-three backcross progenies showed that the rat WD gene detected by Southern blotting using the human WD gene as a probe was tightly linked to the hts phenotype of the LEC ra t with no recombination. LEC is a transcriptionally deficient mutant b ecause no transcript of the rat WD gene could be found in the LEC rat by Northern blotting. This rat WD gene was mapped to 16q12.23-12.3 by fluorescence in situ hybridization and mousexrat somatic cell hybrid a nalysis. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.