The Frat1 gene was first identified as a proto-oncogene involved in progression of mouse T cell lymphomas. More recently, FRAT/GBP (GSK-3beta Binding Protein) family members have been recognized as critical components of the Wnt signal transduction pathway. In an attempt to gain more insight into the function of Frat1, we have generated Frat1-deficient mice in which most of the coding domain wa...

Scleraxis is a transcription factor expressed during early periods of mouse tendon morphogenesis. We have determined that tendon is first clearly present in mouse limb at embryonic day 14.5 (E14.5) and, by in situ hybridization, that scleraxis is expressed in the mouse tendons at E14.5. We have also investigated the regulatory elements that direct scleraxis gene expression to the limb tendons. ...

Egr-1 is an immediate early gene that couples short-term changes in the extracellular milieu to long-term changes in gene expression. Under in vitro conditions, the Egr-1 gene is expressed in many cell types and is induced by a wide variety of extracellular signals. The mechanisms by which the Egr-1 gene is regulated in vivo remain poorly understood. In this study, we have generated transgenic ...

In Caenorhabditis elegans, the terminal differentiation of the hypodermal cells occurs at the larval-to-adult molt, and is characterized in part by the formation of a morphologically distinct adult cuticle. The timing of this event is controlled by a pathway of heterochronic genes that includes the relatively direct regulatory gene, lin-29, and upstream genes lin-4, lin-14 and lin-28. Using nor...

The biochemistry of human nutritional zinc deficiency remains poorly defined. To characterize in genetic terms how cells respond to zinc deprivation, zinc-regulated genes (ZRG's) were identified in yeast. Gene expression was probed using random lacZ reporter gene fusions, integrated by transposon tagging into a diploid genome as previously described. About half of the genome was examined. Cells...

Gene transcription is thought to be essential for memory consolidation and long-lasting changes in synaptic function. In particular, the signal transduction pathways that activate the transcription factor cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) have been implicated in the process of synaptic potentiation. To study the involvement of this pathway in neocortical plasticity within the barrel ...

We have recently shown that a 150-bp Col10a1 distal promoter (-4296 to -4147 bp) is sufficient to direct hypertrophic chondrocyte-specific reporter (LacZ) expression in vivo. More recently, through detailed sequence analysis we identified two putative tandem-repeat Runx2 binding sites within the 3'-end of this 150-bp region (TGTGGG-TGTGGC, -4187 to -4176 bp). Candidate electrophoretic mobility ...

The International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium (IMPC) is a major international effort to explore the effects of knocking out 20,000 genes in the mouse. A new study by White and colleagues, published in the current issue of Disease Models & Mechanisms, demonstrates the usefulness of lacZ in situ reporter expression patterns in extending our understanding of genotype-phenotype relationships as pa...