Mouse Genetics Project

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The Mouse Genetics Project (MGP) is a large-scale mutant mouse production and phenotyping programme aimed at identifying new model organisms of disease. [1] [2] [3] [4]

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Based at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, the project uses knockout mice most of which were generated by the International Knockout Mouse Consortium. 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 mice. [1] 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 controls using a statistical mixed model. [5] These data are immediately shared among the scientific and medical research community through a bespoke open access database, [6] and summaries are displayed in other online resources, including the Mouse Genome Informatics database and the Wikipedia-based Gene Wiki. [4]

As of July 2013, the MGP reports having over 900 mutant lines openly available to the international research community, [4] and have "substantively complete" analysis for over 650 mutant lines, [6] of which over 75 per cent have at least one abnormal phenotype. [1] Among these are new discoveries of genes implicated in disease, including finding:

See also

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In genetics, the phenotype is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological properties, its behavior, and the products of behavior. An organism's phenotype results from two basic factors: the expression of an organism's genetic code and the influence of environmental factors. Both factors may interact, further affecting the phenotype. When two or more clearly different phenotypes exist in the same population of a species, the species is called polymorphic. A well-documented example of polymorphism is Labrador Retriever coloring; while the coat color depends on many genes, it is clearly seen in the environment as yellow, black, and brown. Richard Dawkins in 1978 and then again in his 1982 book The Extended Phenotype suggested that one can regard bird nests and other built structures such as caddisfly larva cases and beaver dams as "extended phenotypes".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wellcome Sanger Institute</span> British genomics research institute

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

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">MYO7A</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">GRXCR1</span> Protein-coding gene in the species Homo sapiens

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Mouse Phenotyping Consortium</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mutagenesis (molecular biology technique)</span>

In molecular biology, mutagenesis is an important laboratory technique whereby DNA mutations are deliberately engineered to produce libraries of mutant genes, proteins, strains of bacteria, or other genetically modified organisms. The various constituents of a gene, as well as its regulatory elements and its gene products, may be mutated so that the functioning of a genetic locus, process, or product can be examined in detail. The mutation may produce mutant proteins with interesting properties or enhanced or novel functions that may be of commercial use. Mutant strains may also be produced that have practical application or allow the molecular basis of a particular cell function to be investigated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ketan J. Patel</span>

Ketan Jayakrishna Patel is a British–Kenyan scientist who is Director of the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and the MRC Molecular Haematology Unit at the University of Oxford. Until 2020 he was a tenured principal investigator at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen D. M. Brown</span>

Steve David Macleod Brown is director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Mammalian Genetics Unit, MRC Harwell at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, a research centre on mouse genetics. In addition, he leads the Genetics and Pathobiology of Deafness research group.

References

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