| First Author | Jones JM | Year | 2000 |
| Journal | Hum Mol Genet | Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 5 | Pages | 821-8 |
| PubMed ID | 10749990 | Mgi Jnum | J:61324 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:1354789 | Doi | 10.1093/hmg/9.5.821 |
| Citation | Jones JM, et al. (2000) The mouse neurological mutant flailer expresses a novel hybrid gene derived by exon shuffling between Gnb5 and Myo5a. Hum Mol Genet 9(5):821-8 |
| abstractText | Exon shuffling is thought to be an important mechanism for evolution of new genes. Here we show that the mouse neurological mutation flailer (flr) expresses a novel gene that combines the promoter and first two exons of guanine nucleotide binding protein beta 5 (Gnb5) with the C-terminal exons of the closely linked Myosin 5A (MyoVA) gene (Myo5a). The flailer protein, which is expressed predominantly in brain, contains the N-terminal 83 amino acids of Gnb5 fused in-frame with the C-terminal 711 amino acids of MyoVA, including the globular tail domain that binds organelles for intracellular transport. Biochemical and genetic studies indicate that the flailer protein competes with wild-type MyoVA in vivo, preventing the localization of smooth endoplasmic reticulum vesicles in the dendritic spines of cerebellar Purkinje cells. The flailer protein thus has a dominant-negative mechanism of action with a recessive mode of inheritance due to the dependence of competitive binding on the ratio between mutant and wild-type proteins. The chromosomal arrangement of Myo5a upstream of Gnb5 is consistent with non-homologous recombination as the mutational mechanism. To our knowledge, flailer is the first example of a mammalian mutation caused by germ line exon shuffling between unrelated genes. |
