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Molecular and Cellular Biology, November 1998, p. 6474-6481, Vol. 18, No. 11
The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine
046091;
Laboratory of Biochemistry,
National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, Maryland
20892-42552; and
Washington University
School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri 631103
Received 5 January 1998/Returned for modification 28 April
1998/Accepted 12 August 1998
The severity of human mucopolysaccharidosis type VII (MPS VII), or
Sly syndrome, depends on the relative activity of the enzyme
0270-7306/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Intracisternal A-Particle Element Transposition into the
Murine
-Glucuronidase Gene Correlates with Loss of Enzyme
Activity: a New Model for
-Glucuronidase Deficiency in the
C3H Mouse
-glucuronidase. Loss of
-glucuronidase activity can cause hydrops fetalis, with in utero or postnatal death of the patient. In this report, we show that
-glucuronidase activity is not detectable by a
standard fluorometric assay in C3H/HeOuJ (C3H) mice homozygous for a
new mutation, gusmps2J. These
gusmps2J/gusmps2J mice are born and
survive much longer than the previously characterized
-glucuronidase-null
B6.C-H-2bm1/ByBir-gusmps
(gusmps/gusmps) mice. Northern blot
analysis of liver from
gusmps2J/gusmps2J mice demonstrates
a 750-bp reduction in size of
-glucuronidase mRNA. A 5.4-kb
insertion in the Gus-sh nucleotide sequence
from these mice was localized by Southern blot analysis to intron 8. The ends of the inserted sequences were cloned by inverse PCR and
revealed an intracisternal A-particle (IAP) element inserted near the
3' end of the intron. The sequence of the long terminal repeat (LTR)
regions of the IAP most closely matches that of a composite LTR found
in transposed IAPs previously identified in the C3H strain. The
inserted IAP may contribute to diminished
-glucuronidase activity
either by interfering with transcription or by destabilizing the
message. The resulting phenotype is much less severe than that
previously described in the
gusmps/gusmps mouse and provides an
opportunity to study MPS VII on a genetic background that clearly
modulates disease severity.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: The Jackson
Laboratory, 600 Main St., Bar Harbor, ME 04609. Phone: (207) 288-6392. Fax: (207) 288-6073. E-mail: bfg{at}aretha.jax.org.
This paper is dedicated to the memory of Edward Birkenmeier, a fine
scientist and good friend, for whom every mutant mouse was an
opportunity and every aspect of biology a joy.
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