The mouse hairy ears mutation exhibits an extended growth (anagen) phase in hair follicles and altered Hoxc gene expression in the ears.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2008
Keywords
Chromosome-Mapping, Cloning-Molecular, Ear, Female, Gene-Expression-Regulation, Genotype, Hair, Homeodomain-Proteins, Inversion-Chromosome, Male, Mice, Mutation
First Page
358
Last Page
367
JAX Source
Vet Dermatol 2008 Dec; 19(6):358-67.
Abstract
The mouse In(15)2Rl (hairy ears, Eh) mutation is a paracentric inversion of the distal half of chromosome 15 (Chr 15). Heterozygous Eh/+ mice display misshaped and hairy ears that have more and longer hair than the ears of their wild-type littermates. We mapped, cloned and sequenced both inversion breakpoints. No protein-coding transcript was disrupted by either breakpoint. The proximal breakpoint is located between syntrophin basic 1 (Sntb1) and hyaluronan synthase 2 (Has2), and the distal breakpoint maps between homeobox C4 (Hoxc4) and single-strand selective monofunctional uracil DNA glycosylase (Smug1), near the middle and the telomere ends of Chr 15, respectively. The inversion spans ~47 megabases. Our genetic analysis suggests that the hairy-ear phenotype is caused by the proximal breakpoint of the inversion-bearing Chr 15. Quantitative RNA analysis by real-time polymerase chain reaction for the genes flanking the breakpoint indicated no changes in expression levels except for some homeobox C (Hoxc) genes whose expression was elevated in developing and mature skin of the ears but not of other body regions. The increased hair length on the ears of Eh/+ mice was due to an extension of the anagen stage in the hair cycle, as determined by histological analysis. Our data indicate that the Eh phenotype arises from mis-expression of Hoxc genes.
Recommended Citation
Mentzer SE,
Sundberg JP,
Awgulewitsch A,
Chao HH,
Carpenter DA,
Zhang WD,
Rinchik EM,
You Y.
The mouse hairy ears mutation exhibits an extended growth (anagen) phase in hair follicles and altered Hoxc gene expression in the ears. Vet Dermatol 2008 Dec; 19(6):358-67.