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Article
Nature Genetics  6, 374 - 378 (1994)
doi:10.1038/ng0494-374

Mutations in the murine homologue of the Menkes gene in dappled and blotchy mice

Julian F.B. Mercer1, Andrew Grimes1, Loreta Ambrosini1, Paul Lockhart1, Jennifer A. Paynter1, Herman Dierick2, 3 & Thomas W. Glover2, 3

  1Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trace Element Group, Murdoch Institute, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia

  2Department of Pediatrics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

  3Department of Human Genetics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

 Correspondence should be addressed to J.F.B.M.

The murine homologue of the Menkes disease gene (MNK) was isolated from cDNA libraries, using human cDNA clones as probes, and by PCR. The predicted amino acid sequence shows a high level of identity (89.9%) with the human protein, and the predicted functional domains in the human protein are present. Using probes to the mouse Mnk gene, we found that the mottled dappled mutation was caused by alteration in the Mnk locus and lack of expression of Mnk RNA. Tissues of the blotchy mouse contained two larger sizes of MNK mRNA demonstrating a likely defect in RNA splicing. Thus, the mottled locus is homologous to the human MNK locus and dappled and blotchy are allelic mutations in this gene.

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Nature Genetics
ISSN: 1061-4036
EISSN: 1546-1718
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