A novel intergenic ETnII-β insertion mutation causes multiple malformations in polypodia mice.

Mouse early transposon insertions are responsible for ~10% of spontaneous mutant phenotypes. We previously reported the phenotypes and genetic mapping of Polypodia, (Ppd), a spontaneous, X-linked dominant mutation with profound effects on body plan morphogenesis. Our new data shows that mutant mice are not born in expected Mendelian ratios secondary to loss after E9.

Generating transgenic mice from bacterial artificial chromosomes: transgenesis efficiency, integration and expression outcomes.

Transgenic mice are widely used in biomedical research to study gene expression, developmental biology, and gene therapy models. Bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) transgenes direct gene expression at physiological levels with the same developmental timing and expression patterns as endogenous genes in transgenic animal models. We generated 707 transgenic founders from 86 BAC transgenes purified by three different methods.

Genetic variation in C57BL/6 ES cell lines and genetic instability in the Bruce4 C57BL/6 ES cell line.

Genetically modified mouse strains derived from embryonic stem (ES) cells are powerful tools for gene function analysis. ES cells from the C57BL/6 mouse strain are not widely used to generate mouse models despite the advantage of a defined genetic background. We assessed genetic variation in six such ES cell lines with 275 SSLP markers.

Rederivation of transgenic and gene-targeted mice by embryo transfer.

Research on genetically engineered mice provides insights into the etiology, therapy, and genetic basis of human diseases. An important variable that affects the results of mouse studies is the health status of the animals. Pathogen burdens may confound observations and obscure underlying mechanisms.

Loss of Omi mitochondrial protease activity causes the neuromuscular disorder of mnd2 mutant mice.

The mouse mutant mnd2 (motor neuron degeneration 2) exhibits muscle wasting, neurodegeneration, involution of the spleen and thymus, and death by 40 days of age. Degeneration of striatal neurons, with astrogliosis and microglia activation, begins at around 3 weeks of age, and other neurons are affected at later stages. Here we have identified the mnd2 mutation as the missense mutation Ser276Cys in the protease domain of the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial serine protease Omi (also known as HtrA2 or Prss25).