External ear hole closure in LG/J mice represents a model of regenerative response. It is accompanied by the formation of a blastema-like structure and the re-growth of multiple tissues including cartilage. The ability to regenerate tissue is heritable. An F34 advanced intercross line of mice (Wustl:LG,SM-G34) was generated to identify genomic loci involved in ear hole closure over a 30 day healing period. We mapped nineteen quantitative trait loci (QTL) for ear hole closure. Individual gene effects are relatively small (0.08 mm) and most loci have co-dominant effects with phenotypically intermediate heterozygotes. QTL support regions were limited to a median size of 2 Mb containing a median of 19 genes. Positional candidate genes were evaluated using differential transcript expression between LG/J and SM/J healing tissue, function analysis, and bioinformatic analysis of SNPs in and around positional candidate genes of interest. Analysis of the set of 34 positional candidate genes and those displaying expression differences revealed over-representation of genes involved in cell cycle regulation/DNA damage, cell migration and adhesion, developmentally related genes, and metabolism. This indicates that the healing phenotype in LG/J mice involves multiple physiological mechanisms.

F34MarkersCIDRThis is the centimorgan map generated by SNP mapping of all members of the LG,SM F34 Advanced Intercross Line. Genotyping was carried out by the Center for Inherited Disease Research (CIDR).