I understand from the Mouse Genome Informatics website that the H2-L gene is present in BALB/c but null in C57BL/6, and protects neurological tissue against Toxoplasma gondii infection.
In accord with this, Blanchard et al. (2015) says: “Consequently, C57BL/6 mice, which are devoid of H-2 Ld, are a good model to study the pathogenesis of T. gondii encephalitis while mice expressing H-2 Ld (e.g., BALB/c or congenic B6.H-2d mice) are TE-resistant.”
Because of this, I wish to introgress the H-2 Ld gene from the BALB/c strain into a KO mouse line that has a C57BL/6 genetic background. I wish to design a PCR assay that will detect the H-2 Ld gene from BALB/c and distinguish it from the null allele in C57BL/6.
The problem I am having is that I am not confident that I have accessed the correct genomic DNA sequence for this gene, in order to design primers. If I design primers for the wrong gene, C57BL/6 won’t be null for it. A search for ‘H2-L’ on the UCSC Genome Browser directs me here, while Ensembl doesn’t seem to find ‘H2-L’ at all.
Furthermore, I cannot find the original reporting paper or any DNA evidence to support that C57BL/6 mice really are H2-L null, as briefly mentioned on the MGI website and tables posted here and here. Is it that the gene is deleted from the C57BL/6 genome, or another reason why it’s apparently not expressed?
Any advice you can provide to me on this would be much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Steve Clapcote
University of Leeds, UK