Hair pigmentation in transgenic mice.
A mouse tyrosinase minigene, mg-Tyrs-J, in which genomic 5' noncoding flanking sequence was fused to a mouse tyrosinase cDNA, was introduced into fertilized eggs of BALB/c albino mice. Six transformed mice that exhibited brown agouti hair with some variations in the intensity of pigmentation were obtained. By crossing the founder mice with BALB/c albino mice, transgenic lines and sublines were established. Each subline expressed a characteristic phenotype with their respective band patterns in Southern blot analysis. This indicates that the character is expressed by transgenes integrated at a single location of the chromosomes. The difference in phenotypes among sublines is probably due to the position effect of the chromatin where the transgene is integrated, although a possibility that modification in the nucleotide sequence of the transgene is responsible for the difference cannot be excluded at present.
Tanaka
S
S
Biological Institute, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.
Takeuchi
T
T
D000818:Animals; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D003001:Cloning, Molecular; D003433:Crosses, Genetic; D004247:DNA / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005260:Female; D005813:Genes, Synthetic; D006200:Hair Color / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D010641:Phenotype; D015183:Restriction Mapping
D004247:DNA; D014442:Monophenol Monooxygenase