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Molecular and Cellular Biology, August 2008, p. 4688-4696, Vol. 28, No. 15
0270-7306/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MCB.00272-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Normal Germ Line Establishment in Mice Carrying a Deletion of the Ifitm/Fragilis Gene Family Cluster{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Ulrike C. Lange,1,2 David J. Adams,3 Caroline Lee,1 Sheila Barton,1 Robert Schneider,2 Allan Bradley,3 and M. Azim Surani1*

Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute of Cancer & Developmental Biology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QN, United Kingdom,1 Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology, Stübeweg 51, D-79108 Freiburg, Germany,2 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton CB10 1SA, United Kingdom3

Received 18 February 2008/ Returned for modification 13 March 2008/ Accepted 14 May 2008

The family of interferon-inducible transmembrane proteins (Ifitm) consists of five highly sequence-related cell surface proteins, which are implicated in diverse cellular processes. Ifitm genes are conserved, widely expressed, and characteristically found in genomic clusters, such as the 67-kb Ifitm family locus on mouse chromosome 7. Recently, Ifitm1 and Ifitm3 have been suggested to mediate migration of early primordial germ cells (PGCs), a process that is little understood. To investigate Ifitm function during germ cell development, we used targeted chromosome engineering to generate mutants which either lack the entire Ifitm locus or carry a disrupted Ifitm3 gene only. Here we show that the mutations have no detectable effects on development of the germ line or on the generation of live young. Hence, contrary to previous reports, Ifitm genes are not essential for PGC migration. The Ifitm family is a striking example of a conserved gene cluster which appears to be functionally redundant during development.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Wellcome Trust/Cancer Research UK Gurdon Institute of Cancer & Developmental Biology, University of Cambridge, Tennis Court Road, Cambridge CB2 1QN, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 (0) 1223 334136. Fax: 44 (0) 1223 334182. E-mail: as10021{at}mole.bio.cam.ac.uk

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 27 May 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://mcb.asm.org/.

Molecular and Cellular Biology, August 2008, p. 4688-4696, Vol. 28, No. 15
0270-7306/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/MCB.00272-08
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.





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