The precise locations of attachment points of muscle to bone-the origin and insertion sites-are crucial anatomical and functional characteristics that influence locomotor performance. Mechanisms that control the development of these interactions between muscle, tendon, and bone are currently not well understood. In a subset of BXD recombinant inbred (RI) strains derived from the C57BL/6J and DBA/2J strains, we observed a soleus femoral attachment anomaly (SFAA) that was rare in both parental strains (Lionikas, Glover et al. 2006). The aim of the present study was to assess suitability of SFAA as a model to study the genetic mechanisms underlying variation in musculoskeletal anatomy. We scored the incidence of SFAA in 55 BXD strains (n = 9 to 136, median = 26, phenotyped animals per strain, for a total number of 2367). Seven strains (BXD1, 12, 38, 43, 48, 54, and 56) exhibited a high incidence of unilateral SFAA (47-89%), whereas 23 strains scored 0%. Exploration of the mechanisms underlying SFAA in 2 high incidence strains, BXD1 and BXD38, indicated that SFAA-relevant genes are to be found in both C57BL/6J and DBA/2J regions of the BXD1 genome. However, not all alleles relevant for the expression of the phenotype were shared between the 2 high-incidence BXD strains. In conclusion, the anatomical origin of the soleus muscle in mouse is controlled by a polygenic system. A panel of BXD RI strains is a useful tool in exploring the genetic mechanisms underlying SFAA and improving our understanding of musculoskeletal development.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2855676 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esq023 | DOI Listing |
Sci Rep
December 2024
Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
Drug addiction is a multifactorial syndrome in which genetic predispositions and exposure to environmental stressors constitute major risk factors for the early onset, escalation, and relapse of addictive behaviors. While it is well known that stress plays a key role in drug addiction, the genetic factors that make certain individuals particularly sensitive to stress and, thereby, more vulnerable to becoming addicted are unknown. In an effort to test a complex set of gene x environment interactions-specifically gene x chronic stress-here we leveraged a systems genetics resource: BXD recombinant inbred mice (BXD5, BXD8, BXD14, BXD22, BXD29, and BXD32) and their parental mouse lines, C57BL/6J and DBA/2J.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychopharmacology (Berl)
December 2024
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, Rome, Italy.
Rationale: The specific location of deviations from normative models of brain function varies considerably across individuals with the same diagnoses. However, as pathological processes are distributed across interconnected systems, this heterogeneity of individual brain deviations may also reveal similarities and differences between disorders. The paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT) is a potential switcher to various behavioral responses where functionally distinct cell types exist across its antero-posterior axis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Issues Mol Biol
October 2024
VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Office of Research and Development Medical Research Service, Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Seattle, WA 98108, USA.
Recent studies have indicated that hindbrain [fourth ventricle (4V)] administration of the neurohypophyseal hormone, oxytocin (OT), reduces body weight, energy intake and stimulates interscapular brown adipose tissue temperature (T) in male diet-induced obese (DIO) rats. What remains unclear is whether chronic hindbrain (4V) OT can impact body weight in female high fat diet-fed (HFD) rodents and whether this involves activation of brown adipose tissue (BAT). We hypothesized that OT-elicited stimulation of sympathetic nervous system (SNS) activation of interscapular brown adipose tissue (IBAT) contributes to its ability to activate BAT and reduce body weight in female high HFD-fed rats.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn Brief: This study investigates the role of TH2B in pre-implantation embryos and found that TH2B deposition varies between gametes but rapidly redistributes in two-cell embryos after fertilization. Our ultra-low-input native chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ULI-NChIP-seq) revealed that TH2B is enriched in early chromatin but decreases after the two-cell stage, with strong correlations to key regulatory regions, histone modifications and transposable elements (TEs), indicating its critical role in zygotic genome activation and early developmental processes.
Abstract: The histone variant TH2B, enriched in oocytes, sperm and early embryos, decreases as embryos differentiate into pre-gastrula stages.
Biomed Pharmacother
November 2024
Department of Neuroscience, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA. Electronic address:
Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is the most prevalent substance use disorder but there is incomplete knowledge of the underlying molecular etiology. Here, we examined the cytosolic proteome from the nucleus accumbens core (NAcC) of ethanol drinking rhesus macaques to identify ethanol-sensitive signaling proteins. The targets were subsequently investigated using bioinformatics, genetic, and pharmacological manipulations in mouse models of ethanol drinking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!