Date of Award
2009
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program
Biology
Supervisor
Dr. Shiva Singh
Abstract
Alcoholism has emerged as a major social and health problem in the world today. Its multi-factorial nature makes the identification of heritable determinants of the disease difficult. Inbred mouse strains have been identified to model various aspects of the disease, one of which is the preference to consume alcohol. In a previous genome-wide expression screen involving the brains o f two strains o f mice that prefer (C57BL/6J or B6) and avoid (DBA/2J or D2) alcohol, the PR domain containing protein 2 (Prdm2) gene (located in an ethanol preference QTL region on chromosome 4), had a higher level o f mRNA in the D2 strain. In this study, a genetic analysis o f Prdm2 (with two transcripts; Prdm2s and Prdm2l) as a potential contributor to the ethanol preference phenotype is performed. The results showed that although there is no difference in Prdm2l mRNA levels, the Prdm2s mRNA quantity is 5-fold higher in B6 than D2. The results o f segregation analyses o f Prdm2 expression and haplotype in F2 and recombinant
inbred lines generated from crosses between B6 and D2 show that this gene does not have an effect on the ethanol preference difference between the two strains.
Recommended Citation
Tapscott, Luke, "Brain Transcript Levels and Co-Segregation of the Prdm2 Gene with Ethanol Preference in Mice" (2009). Digitized Theses. 3817.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/3817