PWD/Ph and PWK/Ph (abbreviated PW*) are highly inbred mouse strains (F66 and F70) derived from wild mice of Mus musculus musculus subspecies. When compared with laboratory inbred strains, they display a plethora of differences in many complex phenotypes such as body weight, fat distribution pattern, blood levels of intermediary metabolites, sensitivity to type-1 diabetes or behaviour patterns. The PWD/Ph genes can rescue the lethal effect of lack of the Igf2 receptor. The male-limited hybrid sterility of (PWD/Ph x laboratory strain)F1 hybrids is a specific phenotype controlled by three or four unlinked loci. These complex phenotypic traits can be genetically dissected by QTL analysis using microsatellite markers of known genetic location. The PW strains are particularly useful for such genome-wide scans since 70-80% of randomly chosen microsatellite markers are polymorphic in (PW x laboratory strain) crosses compared to 35-45% in crosses between two laboratory strains. The list of polymorphic microsatellite loci is included in this report. The high degree of sequence polymorphism allows easier distinction between paternal and maternal mRNA transcripts in PW hybrids, which makes the PW* strains a useful tool also in molecular studies of genomic imprinting. The high frequency of phenotypic differences together with the high degree of sequence polymorphism and the relatively easy breeding of PW strains make them a valuable mammalian model organism for the functional genomics of the traits of biomedical importance.

Institute of Molecular Genetics Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Prague

Eco-evolutionary dynamics of host-microbiome interactions in a natural population of closely related mouse subspecies and their hybrids

A Minimal Hybrid Sterility Genome Assembled by Chromosome Swapping Between Mouse Subspecies (Mus musculus)

Variation in mouse chemical signals is genetically controlled and environmentally modulated

Genic and chromosomal components of Prdm9-driven hybrid male sterility in mice (Mus musculus)

Experimental validation of small mammal gut microbiota sampling from faeces and from the caecum after death

Chromosome-wide characterization of meiotic noncrossovers (gene conversions) in mouse hybrids

Prdm9 Intersubspecific Interactions in Hybrid Male Sterility of House Mouse

Coupling between tolerance and resistance for two related Eimeria parasite species

Copy-number variation introduced by long transgenes compromises mouse male fertility independently of pachytene checkpoints

Genomic Structure of Hstx2 Modifier of Prdm9-Dependent Hybrid Male Sterility in Mice

Histone methyltransferase PRDM9 is not essential for meiosis in male mice

Evidence of functional Cd94 polymorphism in a free-living house mouse population

Modulation of Prdm9-controlled meiotic chromosome asynapsis overrides hybrid sterility in mice

Sperm morphology in two house mouse subspecies: do wild-derived strains and wild mice tell the same story?

Prdm9 incompatibility controls oligospermia and delayed fertility but no selfish transmission in mouse intersubspecific hybrids

X chromosome control of meiotic chromosome synapsis in mouse inter-subspecific hybrids

Mechanistic basis of infertility of mouse intersubspecific hybrids

Interallelic and intergenic incompatibilities of the Prdm9 (Hst1) gene in mouse hybrid sterility

Polymorphism in hybrid male sterility in wild-derived Mus musculus musculus strains on proximal chromosome 17

Fine haplotype structure of a chromosome 17 region in the laboratory and wild mouse