Mice of the strain PERA, descended from wild mice trapped in Peru, are resistant to atherosclerosis and have elevated HDL levels. A congenic strain was constructed by crossing a PERA mouse to a C57BL/6J mouse, then selecting mice having high HDL levels for each subsequent backcross to C57BL/6J. At N5, the high HDL/ atherosclerosis resistance trait was mapped and found to localize to the same genomic position as Ath1. The congenic has now been backcrossed for ten generations. (The PERA subline used to construct this strain is now extinct.) (Paigen, 2000)
B6.PERA-Tnfsf4Ath1-PERA/EiJ was transfered to the production colony at JAX from Dr. Beverly Paigen's colony, also at JAX. The PERA/Ei inbred used as the donor strain in this congenic originally came from Peru. The original was trapped by Olga Atteck for M.E. Wallace, University of Cambridge, in 1961 in a Peruvian Yard used to dry maize cobs in Nana Village, Rimac Valley, Peru. The mice were held in a small, closed colony by Wallace. In 1971, at approximately F25, mice from his colony were sent to E.M. Eicher and T.H. Roderick at JAX. PERA/Ei and PERA/Rk were established immediatelly as separate colonies.
