International Mammalian Genome Society

17th International Mouse Genome Conference

9-12 November 2003, Braunschweig, Germany

Plenary Presentations * Oral Presentations *
Poster Presentations: Behavioural Genetics and Genomics * Development and Stem Cells * Functional Genome Analysis * Mouse Models of Human Disease * Mouse System Biology Bioinformatics * Multigenic and Multifactorial Trait Analysis * Nutrition and Metabolic Disease * Phenotyping Methods Imaging * The Genetics and Genomics of Infectious Disease *
Verne Chapman Memorial Lecture * Table of Contents * Sponsor/Exhibitor List * Awards * Photographs

---

POSTER 129 - FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISATION OF GENE TRAP MOUSE MUTANTS

Yalcin S
Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics

Co-Authors: 2) Floss T, 3) Knobeloch K P, 4) Eichele G, 5) Melchner Hv, 2) Wurst W, 1) Lehrach H, 1) Ruiz P
Institutions: 1) Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics. 2) GSF, 3) FMP, 4) MPI for Experimental Endocrinology, 5) Univ. Frankfurt

The gene trap technology has proven to represent a powerful tool for the functional characterisation of genes in the context of the whole organism. ES cells electroporated or infected with the different vectors were selected in vitro for neomycin resistance and the gene trap vector insertion site identified in more than 8,000 ES-cell lines. We have generated mouse lines from two different trapped ES-cell lines bearing gene trap insertions into p0071 plakophilin 4(W024F10), Ect-2 (F045D05). P0071 protein is a member of the armadillo repeat family and is localised at cell-cell borders. It has been shown that p0071 directly interacts with the Alzheimer`s disease-related Presenilin-1 and also with the PDZ domain of Erbin. Accordingly, it might be involved in regulating adhesive interactions and cytoskeletal structure. Homozygous mutant p0071 mice are viable and fertile without any obvious phenoytpe so far. The second trapped gene is Ect-2, which is an oncogene and was shown to regulate cytokinesis and to catalyze the guanine nucleotide exchange on the small GTPases, RhoA, Rac1 and Cdc42. No homozygous mutant Ect-2 alive animals could be found to date, suggesting that this mutation leads to embryonic lethality. Data on the gene trap vector insertion sites, the mutagenicity of the vectors and the corresponding expression patterns using in-situ hybridisation assays will be presented and discussed.

The German Gene Trap Consortium is headed by W. Wurst (GSF, Munich - coordinator), H. v. Melchner (Univ. Frankfurt), H.H. Arnold (Univ. Braunschweig) and P. Ruiz (Max-Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, Berlin).