Fig. 1

Genetic and physical maps of the squig region on distal mouse Chr 11. A Low-resolution genetic map of squig and eight microsatellite markers, based on the backcross panel described in Additional file 1 (Figure S2). The number of crossovers (out of 1008 meioses) located in each marker-defined interval is shown. As described in Figure S2, the squig mutation must be located within the 3.17 cM interval between markers D11Mit59 and D9Mit360. B The D11Mit59 to D11Mit360 region is expanded to show the relative positions of 8 SNP markers used to type the 32 panel members recombinant in that 3.24 Mb interval. The number of crossovers located in each marker/SNP-defined interval is shown. The squig mutation must lie between SNP10 and SNP14, and was never separated from SNP6 nor SNP13. C The 0.6 Mb span between SNP10 and SNP14 includes 18 protein coding genes (shown as colored boxes). At least 5 of these (Arl4d, Meox1, Sost, Dusp3 and Cd300lg; shown as orange or green boxes) are known to be expressed in the axial skeleton [2]; only Meox1 (green box) is known to affect tail morphology when disrupted in mice [8, 9]. D The Meox1 gene is expanded to show the 3 exons it comprises (with a 2 kb scale bar). Green boxes represent coding regions; white boxes indicate the 5’ and 3’ untranslated regions. Meox1, Intron 1–2 includes a two-exon lncRNA (Gm11551, shown as blue boxes) that is transcribed from the complementary strand