Hm. Hood et al., Genomewide search for epistasis in a complex trait: Pentobarbital withdrawal convulsions in mice, BEHAV GENET, 31(1), 2001, pp. 93-100
The well-documented difference in pentobarbital withdrawal severity between
DBA/2J and C57BL/6J mice offers the opportunity to study how differences b
etween allelic variants influence pentobarbital withdrawal via their additi
ve and/or dominance effects and to identify modifier loci that also influen
ce the trait via gene-gene interactions (a form of epistasis). Previous wor
k in our laboratory identified seven provisional quantitative trait loci (Q
TLs) for pentobarbital withdrawal using BXD recombinant inbred strains. To
date, only one of these QTLs has been confirmed, Pbwl. We hypothesized that
other loci that act epistatically may also influence genetic variance in p
entobarbital withdrawal severity. Using Epistat, a program developed to car
ry out full-genome searches for epistasis, we identified six provisional ep
istatic interactions (P < .002) between the provisional QTLs and modifier l
oci elsewhere in the genome. Verification testing of these interactions usi
ng 404 B6D2F(2) mice provided supporting evidence that a QTL on chromosome
11 contributes to genetic variance in pentobarbital withdrawal, but only in
the presence of a modifier allele on distal chromosome 1 (P = .0004). This
modifier is in the same genomic vicinity as loci detected for a variety of
withdrawal and seizure phenotypes.