1. ¹Institute of Immunology, University of Rostock, Schillingallee 70, Rostock, Germany
2. ²Institute of Neurology, University of Rostock, Gehlsheimer Strae 20, Rostock, Germany
3. ³Department of Human Genetics, University of Bochum, Bochum, Germany

Correspondence: Dr P Serrano-Fernández, Institute of Immunology, University of Rostock, Schillingallee 70, 18055 Rostock, Germany. E-mail: serrano@pzr.uni-rostock.de

Received 17 March 2004; Revised 3 August 2004; Accepted 3 August 2004.

Abstract

Genetic linkage and association studies define chromosomal regions, quantitative trait loci (QTLs), which influence the phenotype of polygenic diseases. Here, we describe a global approach to determine intergenomic consensus of those regions in order to fine map QTLs and select particularly promising candidate genes for disease susceptibility or other polygenic traits. Exemplarily, human multiple sclerosis (MS) susceptibility regions were compared for sequence similarity with mouse and rat QTLs in its animal model experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE). The number of intergenomic MS/EAE consensus genes (295) is significantly higher than expected if the animal model was unrelated to the human disease. Hence, this approach contributes to the empirical evaluation of animal models for their applicability to the study of human diseases.