USE OF QUANTITATIVE TRAIT LOCI TO MAP MURINE LUNG-TUMOR SUSCEPTIBILITY GENES

During the last decade new methods for mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) have helped geneticists uncover disease-associated genes. Gene tic dissection of complex multigenic diseases such as cancer is being accomplished in part by mapping QTLs in experimental crosses of mice [ 1]. With the recent construction of dense genetic linkage maps for the mouse, mapping of quantitative trait loci has become practical [2]. O ver 6000 polymorphic simple sequence length repeat markers (microsatel lite markers) have been napped in the mouse genome [3], and new, analy tical approaches to linkage analysis have made QTL mapping a powerful technique for identifying cancer genes [4-7]. In this overview we disc uss the design of OIL mapping studies and some of the findings from st udies on the mapping of murine lung tumor susceptibility loci.