USE OF AN INTRON LENGTH POLYMORPHISM TO LOCALIZE THE TROPOELASTIN GENE TO MOUSE CHROMOSOME-5 IN A REGION OF LINKAGE CONSERVATION WITH HUMAN-CHROMOSOME 7

The complete coding sequence for mouse tropoelastin was obtained from overlapping reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (PCR) ampl imers. These cDNA fragments were derived from mouse tropoelastin mRNA using PCR oligomers complementary to conserved domains within rat trop oelastin mRNA. A comparison of coding domains of mouse and rat tropoel astin mRNA revealed a greater than 93% homology at the nucleotide leve l and over 96% similarity in the predicted amino acid sequence. PCR pr imers complementary to regions of the mouse tropoelastin mRNA were use d to define a novel intron length polymorphism (ILP) within intron 8 o f the mouse tropoelastin gene (Eln). This ILP proved to be informative in an interspecific backcross in which genomic DNA samples from 75 ba ckcross mice were used to map the tropoelastin gene to a position in t he distal half of mouse chromosome 5. The linkage and genetic distance s between Eln and the closest molecular markers used in this study are centromere-D5Mit95, D5Mit96-6.7 cM-Gus, Eln-4.0 cM-Zp3-telomere. (C) 1994 Academic Press, Inc.