COMPARATIVE MAPPING OF RPL3, A GENE OVEREXPRESSED IN MULTIPLE OBESITY MODELS

Abstract

The ribosomal protein 3 gene is differentially expressed in hypothalamus and brown adipose tissue between mouse lines divergently selected for heat loss, and in skeletal muscle of the ob/ob mouse model. Unfortunately, multiple Rpl3-processed pseudogenes have hampered mapping of the functional gene copy in mammalian species. Using PCR amplification with intronic primer binding, we have mapped Rpl3 to MMU15, and have also localized RPL3 to BTA5 in cattle. Comparative mapping implicates a previously mapped copy of RPL3 on HSA22 as the functional copy of human RPL3, while predictive mapping places the porcine homologue on SSC5.

Keywords:

• Rpl3
• Comparative mapping
• Pseudogenes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to Merlyn Nielsen for a constructive review of a previous draft of this manuscript. The authors thank D.J.S. Hetzel and J.E. Womack for provision of IBRP DNA. We are grateful to W. Barendse for provision of database services and bovine linkage analysis. We would also like to thank Lucy Rowe from The Jackson Laboratory for assistance with the Mouse Radiation Hybrid Database. Published as paper number 13128 Journal Series, Agric. Res. Div., University of Nebraska, Lincoln 68583–0908.