- Okamoto, Faith;
- Chitre, Apurva;
- Missfeldt Sanches, Thiago;
- Chen, Denghui;
- Munro, Daniel;
- Aron, Allegra;
- Beeson, Angela;
- Bimschleger, Hannah;
- Eid, Maya;
- Garcia Martinez, Angel;
- Han, Wenyan;
- Holl, Katie;
- Jackson, Tyler;
- Johnson, Benjamin;
- King, Christopher;
- Kuhn, Brittany;
- Lamparelli, Alexander;
- Netzley, Alesa;
- Nguyen, Khai-Minh;
- Peng, Beverly;
- Tripi, Jordan;
- Wang, Tengfei;
- Ziegler, Kendra;
- Adams, Douglas;
- Baud, Amelie;
- Carrette, Lieselot;
- Chen, Hao;
- de Guglielmo, Giordano;
- Dorrestein, Pieter;
- George, Olivier;
- Ishiwari, Keita;
- Jablonski, Monica;
- Jhou, Thomas;
- Kallupi, Marsida;
- Knight, Rob;
- Meyer, Paul;
- Solberg Woods, Leah;
- Polesskaya, Oksana;
- Palmer, Abraham
Genome-wide association studies typically evaluate the autosomes and sometimes the X Chromosome, but seldom consider the Y or mitochondrial (MT) Chromosomes. We genotyped the Y and MT Chromosomes in heterogeneous stock (HS) rats (Rattus norvegicus), an outbred population created from 8 inbred strains. We identified 8 distinct Y and 4 distinct MT Chromosomes among the 8 founders. However, only 2 types of each nonrecombinant chromosome were observed in our modern HS rat population (generations 81-97). Despite the relatively large sample size, there were virtually no significant associations for behavioral, physiological, metabolome, or microbiome traits after correcting for multiple comparisons. However, both Y and MT Chromosomes were strongly associated with the expression of a few genes located on those chromosomes, which provided a positive control. Our results suggest that within modern HS rats there are no Y and MT Chromosomes differences that strongly influence behavioral or physiological traits. These results do not address other ancestral Y and MT Chromosomes that do not appear in modern HS rats, nor do they address effects that may exist in other rat populations, or in other species.