Genetics of reeler and Genomics of reelin

Abstract

The reeler mutation appeared for the first time in Edinburgh in 1948 (Falconer 1951) on a background of the Snow Belly strain. Early work mapped the reeler locus to the proximal portion of chromosome 5 (linkage group XVII, formerly part of group III, Falconer 1952). Some time after its description, the mutation was transferred to Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, USA). The close linkage of hammertoe (Hm) and reeler (rl) on mouse chromosome (Chr) 5 allowed the construction of stocks that used Hm as a marker for early recognition of rl/rl homozygotes. Two such stocks were created and used for many years by various investigators interested in studying the effects of the reeler gene in early development. The first stock began on a C57BL/6 J genetic background. Seven years later a second Hm rl/+ + line was constructed to be used in a cross with a Robertsonian chromosome, Rb(5.15)15Rma, to map more accurately the distance of reeler from the centromere.