Mutation of murine Sox4 untranslated regions results in partially penetrant perinatal lethality.

ABSTRACT: Sox4 is an essential gene, and genetic deletion results in embryonic lethality. In an effort to develop mice with tissue-specific deletion, we bred conditional knockout mice bearing LoxP recombination sites flanking the Sox4 gene, with the LoxP sites located in the Sox4 5'UTR and 3'UTR.The number of mice homozygous for this LoxP-flanked conditional knockout allele was far below the expected number, suggesting embryonic lethality with reduced penetrance. From over 200 animals bred, only 11% were homozygous Sox4(flox/flox) mice, compared to the expected Mendelian ratio of 25% (p<0.001). Moreover, there was a significant reduction in the number of female Sox4(flox/flox) mice (26%) relative to male Sox4(flox/flox) mice (p=0.0371). Reduced Sox4 expression in homozygous embryos was confirmed by in-situ hybridization and Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (QPCR).LoxP sites in the 5' and 3' UTR of both alleles of Sox4 resulted in reduced, but variable expression of Sox4 message.

SUBMITTER: Wiles WG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4237010 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep-Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature