Background: The laboratory rat (Rattus norvegicus) is an important model for human disease, and is extensively used for studying complex traits for example in the physiological and pharmacological fields. To facilitate genetic studies like QTL mapping, genetic makers that can be easily typed, like SNPs, are essential.
Results: A genome-wide set of 820 SNP assays was designed for the KASPar genotyping platform, which uses a technique based on allele specific oligo extension and energy transfer-based detection. SNPs were chosen to be equally spread along all chromosomes except Y and to be polymorphic between Brown Norway and SS or Wistar rat strains based on data from the rat HapMap EU project. This panel was tested on 38 rats of 34 different strains and 3 wild rats to determine the level of polymorphism and to generate a phylogenetic network to show their genetic relationships. As a proof of principle we used this panel to map an obesity trait in Zucker rats and confirmed significant linkage (LOD 122) to chromosome 5: 119-129 Mb, where the leptin receptor gene (Lepr) is located (chr5: 122 Mb).
Conclusion: We provide a fast and cost-effective platform for genome-wide SNP typing, which can be used for first-pass genetic mapping and association studies in a wide variety of rat strains.