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Molecular and Cellular Biology, December 2000, p. 9331-9336, Vol. 20, No. 24
Institute for Molecular Bioscience,
University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia,1 and Samuel Lunenfeld
Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Canada M5G
1X52
Received 21 June 2000/Returned for modification 21 August
2000/Accepted 11 September 2000
We have previously shown that Sox18 is expressed in
developing vascular endothelium and hair follicles during mouse
embryogenesis and that point mutations in Sox18 are the
underlying cause of cardiovascular and hair follicle defects in
ragged (Ra) mice. Here we describe the analysis
of Sox18
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Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Mice Null for Sox18 Are Viable and
Display a Mild Coat Defect

/
mice produced by gene targeting.
Despite the profound defects seen in Ra mice,
Sox18
/
mice have no obvious cardiovascular
defects and only a mild coat defect with a reduced proportion of zigzag
hairs. A reduction in the amount of pheomelanin pigmentation in hair
shafts was also observed; later-forming hair follicles showed a reduced
subapical pheomelanin band, giving Sox18
/
mice a slightly darker appearance than Sox18+/+
and Sox18+/
siblings.
Sox18
/
mice are viable and fertile and show
no difference in the ability to thrive relative to littermates. Because
of the mild effect of the mutation on the phenotype of
Sox18
/
mice, we conclude that the
semidominant nature of the Ra mutations is due to a
trans-dominant negative effect mediated by the mutant SOX18
proteins rather than haploinsufficiency as has been observed for other
SOX genes. Due to the similarity of SOX18 to other subgroup F SOX proteins, SOX7 and
17, and the overlap in expression of these
genes, functional redundancy amongst these SOX proteins could also
account for the mild phenotype of Sox18
/
mice.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute for
Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia. Phone: 61 7 3365 4491. Fax: 61 7 3365 4388. E-mail:
p.koopman{at}cmcb.uq.edu.au.
Present address: Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, Cornell
University Weill Medical College, New York, NY 10021.
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