ACCURATE DETERMINATION OF THE SIZE OF THE 1ST INTRON DELETION IN THE RENIN GENE OF SHR FROM AN AUSTRALIAN COLONY

1. It has been reported that the first intron of the renin gene of the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) is shorter than that of the Wist ar-Kyoto (WKY) rat, suggesting a role for this difference in the devel opment of hypertension. 2. The genealogy of some Australian SHR coloni es has raised doubts about its similarity to the Japanese, American an d European colonies. 3. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique has been used with primers identical to the flanking region of the fir st intron of the renin gene to determine its length in SHR, WKY and Sp rague-Dawley (SD) from an Australian colony. 4. The size of the first intron of the renin gene in SHR, WKY and SD was found to be approximat ely 3870, 4550 and 5000 base pairs, respectively, results which agree with those previously published. 5. It was concluded that the first in tron deletion, and its size, has been conserved in an Australian SHR c olony.