Characterization of a new mouse mutant strain with age- and hair cycle- dependent coat color change

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24300156
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Laboratory animal science
• Research Institution: Nagahama Institute of Bio-Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: YAMAMOTO Hiroaki 長浜バイオ大学, バイオサイエンス学部, 教授 (40174809)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): TAMURA Masaru 独立行政法人理化学研究所, バイオリソースセンター, 開発研究員 (50370119)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 毛周期 / マウス / 毛色変異体

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A novel coat color mutant mouse, named M2BBr, generated by saturation mutagenesis was analyzed. The mutant mouse changes its coat color from black to brown with aging (usually from the fourth or fifth postnatal hair cycle), associated with decreased expression of pigmentation genes necessary for synthesis of dark (black) melanin. In addition, in the brown coat color areas, each hair shows pigment type switching from black to brown and then to black from the tip to the base. This is a very peculiar phenomenon because the mutant mouse has homozygous nonagouti alleles (a/a) at the agouti locus and its coat color is expected to be fully black. This mutation also shows various pleiotropic effects causing unusual thickening of the skin and aberrant organization of various tissues. The candidate locus is within 1.7 Mb, in which about 60 loci are still included.

Free Research Field

発生遺伝学