Two Closely Linked Interactive Blood Pressure QTL on Rat Chromosome 5 Defined Using Congenic Dahl Rats

Previously we reported the construction of a congenic strain, S.LEW, spanning a large region of rat chromosome 5. The Lewis (LEW) strain was the donor, and the Dahl salt-sensitive (S) strain was the recipient. The congenic strain included a blood pressure quantitative trait locus (QTL). In the present work, a series of nine congenic substrains were constructed from S.LEW which defined two closely linked blood pressure QTL in the region previously thought to contain only one. LEW low-blood-pressure alleles at both QTL were required for a major effect on blood pressure. Neither LEW allele alone had a significant effect on blood pressure. The two QTL were localized to regions 6.3 and 4.6 cM, and these were 1.0 cM apart.