and as genetic modifiers of KIF18A function in fertility and mitotic progression.

The kinesin family member 18A () is an essential regulator of microtubule dynamics and chromosome alignment during mitosis. Functional dependency on KIF18A varies by cell type and genetic context but the heritable factors that influence this dependency remain unknown. To address this, we took advantage of the variable penetrance observed in different mouse strain backgrounds to screen for loci that modulate germ cell depletion in the absence of KIF18A.

Resolution of structural variation in diverse mouse genomes reveals chromatin remodeling due to transposable elements.

Diverse inbred mouse strains are important biomedical research models, yet genome characterization of many strains is fundamentally lacking in comparison with humans. In particular, catalogs of structural variants (SVs) (variants ≥ 50 bp) are incomplete, limiting the discovery of causative alleles for phenotypic variation. Here, we resolve genome-wide SVs in 20 genetically distinct inbred mice with long-read sequencing.

Inter-Strain Epigenomic Profiling Reveals a Candidate IAP Master Copy in C3H Mice.

Insertions of endogenous retroviruses cause a significant fraction of mutations in inbred mice but not all strains are equally susceptible. Notably, most new Intracisternal A particle (IAP) ERV mutagenic insertions have occurred in C3H mice. We show here that strain-specific insertional polymorphic IAPs accumulate faster in C3H/HeJ mice, relative to other sequenced strains, and that IAP transcript levels are higher in C3H/HeJ embryonic stem (ES) cells compared to other ES cells.