An essential developmental function for murine phosphoglycolate phosphatase in safeguarding cell proliferation.

Mammalian phosphoglycolate phosphatase (PGP) is thought to target phosphoglycolate, a 2-deoxyribose fragment derived from the repair of oxidative DNA lesions. However, the physiological role of this activity and the biological function of the DNA damage product phosphoglycolate is unknown. We now show that knockin replacement of murine Pgp with its phosphatase-inactive Pgp mutant is embryonically lethal due to intrauterine growth arrest and developmental delay in midgestation.