The Mouse Genetics Project (MGP) is a large-scale

mutant In biology, and especially in genetics, a mutant is an organism or a new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is generally an alteration of the DNA sequence of the genome or chromosome of an organism. It i ...

mouse production and

phenotyping In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology (physical form and structure), its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological properties ...

programme aimed at identifying new

model organism A model organism is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. Mo ...

s of disease. Based at the

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute The Wellcome Sanger Institute, previously known as The Sanger Centre and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, is a non-profit organisation, non-profit British genomics and genetics research institute, primarily funded by the Wellcome Trust. It is l ...

, the project uses

knockout mice A knockout mouse, or knock-out mouse, is a genetically modified mouse (''Mus musculus'') in which researchers have inactivated, or " knocked out", an existing gene by replacing it or disrupting it with an artificial piece of DNA. They are importan ...

most of which were generated by the

International Knockout Mouse Consortium The International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) is a scientific endeavour to produce a collection of mouse embryonic stem cell lines that together lack every gene in the genome, and then to distribute the cells to scientific researchers to ...

. For each mutant line, groups of seven male and seven female mice move through a standard analysis pipeline aimed at detecting traits that differ from healthy

C57BL/6 C57BL/6, often referred to as "C57 black 6", "B6", "C57" or "black 6", is a common inbred strain of laboratory mouse. It is the most widely used "genetic background" for genetically modified mice for use as models of human disease. They are the ...

mice. The pipeline collects many measurements of viability, fertility, body weight, infection, hearing, morphology, haematology, behaviour, blood chemistry and immunity and compares them to

wild type The wild type (WT) is the phenotype of the typical form of a species as it occurs in nature. Originally, the wild type was conceptualized as a product of the standard "normal" allele at a locus, in contrast to that produced by a non-standard, " ...

controls using a statistical

mixed model A mixed model, mixed-effects model or mixed error-component model is a statistical model containing both fixed effects and random effects. These models are useful in a wide variety of disciplines in the physical, biological and social sciences. ...

. These data are immediately shared among the scientific and medical research community through a bespoke

open access Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

database,Mouse Resources Portal

. and summaries are displayed in other online resources, including the

Mouse Genome Informatics Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) is a free, online database and bioinformatics resource hosted by The Jackson Laboratory, with funding by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Eunice Kenned ...

database and the Wikipedia-based

Gene Wiki The Gene Wiki is a project within Wikipedia that aims to describe the relationships and functions of all human genes. It was established to transfer information from scientific resources to Wikipedia stub articles. The Gene Wiki project also ini ...

. As of July 2013, the MGP reports having over 900 mutant lines openly available to the international research community, and have "substantively complete" analysis for over 650 mutant lines, of which over 75 per cent have at least one abnormal phenotype. Among these are new discoveries of genes implicated in disease, including finding: *Mutation of SLX4 causes a new type of

Fanconi anemia Fanconi anemia (FA) is a rare, autosomal recessive genetic disease characterized by aplastic anemia, congenital defects, endocrinological abnormalities, and an increased incidence of developing cancer. The study of Fanconi anemia has improve ...

. *Nine new genes that influence bone strength. * Mutation of

CENPJ Centromere protein J is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''CENPJ'' gene. It is also known as centrosomal P4.1-associated protein (CPAP). During cell division, this protein plays a structural role in the maintenance of centrosome integrit ...

models

Seckel syndrome Seckel syndrome, or microcephalic primordial dwarfism (also known as bird-headed dwarfism, Harper's syndrome, Virchow–Seckel dwarfism and bird-headed dwarf of Seckel) is an extremely rare congenital nanosomic disorder. Inheritance is autosomal r ...

. *

SPNS2 Spinster homolog 2 (Drosophila) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''SPNS2'' gene. Model organisms The orthologous protein in zebrafish has been shown to transport sphingosine-1-phosphate Sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is a sign ...

is important in mammalian immune system function. * MYSM1 is important for

hematopoiesis Haematopoiesis (; ; also hematopoiesis in American English, sometimes h(a)emopoiesis) is the formation of blood cellular components. All cellular blood components are derived from haematopoietic stem cells. In a healthy adult human, roughly ten ...

and

lymphocyte A lymphocyte is a type of white blood cell (leukocyte) in the immune system of most vertebrates. Lymphocytes include T cells (for cell-mediated and cytotoxic adaptive immunity), B cells (for humoral, antibody-driven adaptive immunity), an ...

differentiation.

References

{{reflist, 30em

External links

The Sanger Mouse Portal
containing all MGP data
The MGP Biomart
for extracting phenotypic data Model organism databases Genetically modified organisms Laboratory mouse strains Wellcome Trust Research projects Genetic engineering in the United Kingdom Science and technology in Cambridgeshire South Cambridgeshire District

See also

References

External links