Locus of dominant hairless gene (Ht) causing abnormal hair and keratinization maps to rat chromosome 10.

The rat dominant hairless gene (Ht) of the WBN/Ila-Ht rat causes atrichosis in Ht/Ht and hypotrichosis in Ht/+. Furthermore the Ht/Ht shows signs of abnormal keratinization and almost all of the Ht/Ht die in an immature stage before weaning in the conventional environment. Ht/+ was affected by dermatitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus, suggesting that the gene Ht might involve defense mechanisms against infection. In this study, we performed the linkage analysis of the gene Ht by outcross with the Brown Norway rat in the SPF environment. Ninety-six backcross progeny of (BN x WBN/Ila-Ht/Ht) F1 x WBN/Ila-Ht/Ht were typed with microsatellite markers and the gene Ht was mapped on chromosome 10 between Asgr1 and Nos2 within the map distance of 6.2 cM.