A Gene Affecting Wallerian Nerve Degeneration Maps Distally on Mouse Chromosome 4

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1993-10, Vol.90 (20), p.9717-9720
• Main Authors: Lyon, M. F., Ogunkolade, B. W., Brown, M. C., Atherton, D. J., Perry, V. H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Alleles; Animals; Base Sequence; Biological and medical sciences; Chromosome Mapping; Chromosomes; Crossovers; Degenerative and inherited degenerative diseases of the nervous system. Leukodystrophies. Prion diseases; DNA; DNA Primers - chemistry; Genes; Genetic Linkage; Genetic loci; Genetic Markers; Medical sciences; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Mice, Mutant Strains; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Nerve degeneration; Nerves; Nervous system; Neurology; Phenotypes; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Rodents; Wallerian degeneration; Wallerian Degeneration - genetics
• ISSN: 0027-8424; 1091-6490
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.90.20.9717

When a nerve axon is cut or crushed, the nerve fibers in the distal part of the axon, separated from the cell body, undergo a form of spontaneous degeneration, known as Wallerian degeneration. A substrain of the mouse inbred strain C57BL, known as C57BL/Ola, carries a mutant form of a gene involved in Wallerian degeneration in the peripheral and central nervous systems, and in retrograde degeneration of retinal ganglion cells. Wallerian degeneration in this substrain is abnormally slow. Previously the defect had been shown to be due to an autosomal dominant gene. The locus has been given the name and symbol Wallerian degeneration Wld, with the mutant allele Wlds(Wallerian degeneration-slow). The Wld locus has now been mapped, by using conventional and molecular markers, to the distal end of chromosome 4, near the locus of pronatriodilatin (Pnd). The order of loci (with recombination distances in centimorgans, cM) is cen-D4Mit11-8.9 ± 1.7 cM-Fuca-2.5 ± 0.93 cM-Akp-2-3.2 ± 1.1 cM-D4Mit48-3.5 ± 1.1 cM-(Wld, Pnd, D4Mit49)-0.71 ± 0.50 cM-(Eno-1, D4Mit33)-1.4 ± 0.70 cM-D4Mit42-2.5 ± 0.93 cM-D4Smh6b. The information on the position of the Wld locus should be valuable in further characterization of this gene involved in nerve degeneration and regeneration.