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Progress and prospects in rat genetics: a community view

Nature Genetics volume 40, pages 516–522 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The rat is an important system for modeling human disease. Four years ago, the rich 150-year history of rat research was transformed by the sequencing of the rat genome, ushering in an era of exceptional opportunity for identifying genes and pathways underlying disease phenotypes. Genome-wide association studies in human populations have recently provided a direct approach for finding robust genetic associations in common diseases, but identifying the precise genes and their mechanisms of action remains problematic. In the context of significant progress in rat genomic resources over the past decade, we outline achievements in rat gene discovery to date, show how these findings have been translated to human disease, and document an increasing pace of discovery of new disease genes, pathways and mechanisms. Finally, we present a set of principles that justify continuing and strengthening genetic studies in the rat model, and further development of genomic infrastructure for rat research.

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Acknowledgements

This Perspective is supported by 257 members of the rat genetics and genomics community, who are listed in Supplementary Table 1 online. The authors thank them for their support in the drafting of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre and Imperial College London, Du Cane Road, London, W12 0NN, UK

    Timothy J Aitman & Anna Marrone

  2. University of Missouri, 1600 E. Rollins Road, Columbia, 65211, Missouri, USA

    John K Critser & Lela Riley

  3. The Hubrecht Institute, Uppsalalaan 8, Utrecht, 3584 CT, The Netherlands

    Edwin Cuppen

  4. University of Glasgow, 126 University Place, Glasgow, G12 8TA, UK

    Anna Dominiczak

  5. European Bioinformatics Institute, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SD, UK

    Xose M Fernandez-Suarez

  6. Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford, OX3 7BN, UK

    Jonathan Flint & Dominique Gauguier

  7. Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, 53226, Wisconsin, USA

    Aron M Geurts, Howard J Jacob, Carol Moreno & Simon N Twigger

  8. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1400 University Avenue, Madison, 53706, Wisconsin, USA

    Michael Gould

  9. Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street, 55905, Minnesota, Rochester, USA

    Peter C Harris

  10. Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, 17177, Sweden

    Rikard Holmdahl

  11. Max-Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rossle-Strasse 10, Berlin, 13092, Germany

    Norbert Hubner, Zsuzsanna Izsvák & Kathrin Saar

  12. Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8501, Japan

    Takashi Kuramoto, Tomoji Mashimo, Tadao Serikawa & Birger Voigt

  13. University of Iowa, 375 Newton Road, Iowa City, 52242, Iowa, USA

    Anne E Kwitek

  14. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH16 4TJ, Scotland, UK

    John Mullins & Linda Mullins

  15. Karolinska Hospital, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, 17176, Sweden

    Tomas Olsson

  16. Institute of Physiology, Czech Academy of Sciences and Centre for Applied Genomics, Vídeňská 1083, Prague 4, 142 20, Czech Republic

    Michal Pravenec

  17. Institute of Biology and Medical Genetics, Charles University, Albertov 4, Prague 2, 128 00, Czech Republic

    Michal Pravenec

  18. Center for Molecular Genetics and Genomics, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, 68198, Nebraska, USA

    James D Shull

  19. Université libre de Bruxelles, Rue Profs Jeener & Brachet, Gosselies (Charleroi), BE-6041, Belgium

    Claude Szpirer

  20. Baylor College of Medicine, 1 Baylor Plaza, Houston, 77030, Texas, USA

    Kim Worley

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  1. Timothy J Aitman
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Contributions

All authors contributed equally to the production of this manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Timothy J Aitman or Howard J Jacob.

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Competing interests

The consomic rats are distributed through Physiogenix, for which H.J.J. is a founder and significant shareholder. The Program for Genomic Application grant required a commercial distributor. When Charles River reneged on distribution, Physiogenix stepped in to fill this need. Physiogenix is formally a contract research organization and contracts with Hilltop Farms to distribute the rats.

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Aitman, T., Critser, J., Cuppen, E. et al. Progress and prospects in rat genetics: a community view. Nat Genet 40, 516–522 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.147

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