hypertension in Dahl S rats with a 1.37 Mbp genomic region protective of Characterization of biological pathways associated

Summary The present study utilized 13 overlapping congenic strainsand identified by exclusion mapping a 1.37 Mbp region on chr13(positions80.92to82.29MbpintheRn5genomeassembly)that significantly influences the MAP in SS rats fed an HS diet.After DNA sequencing to fill gaps in the reference sequence inthis region, five genes were identified ( Rfwd2, Astn1, Fam5b,Pappa2 , and Tnr ). Of these five genes, Rfwd2 was the moststrongly expressed in the renal outer medulla. The Bayesiananalyses indicated several genes that may connect Rfwd2 topathways related to blood pressure. As summarized in theschematic in Fig. 6, nine genes in the 19 blood pressure-relatedpathways exhibited very high partial correlations with Rfwd2 .Four of these genes that were interdependent with Rfwd2 exhibited significant differences in mRNA abundance betweenSS and salt-resistant congenic rats. Plausible mediators linking Rfwd2 to mechanisms of arterial blood pressure regulation asindicated by partial correlation values include: