First Author | van der Lugt NM | Year | 1994 |
Journal | Genes Dev | Volume | 8 |
Issue | 7 | Pages | 757-69 |
PubMed ID | 7926765 | Mgi Jnum | J:17712 |
Mgi Id | MGI:65743 | Doi | 10.1101/gad.8.7.757 |
Citation | van der Lugt NM, et al. (1994) Posterior transformation, neurological abnormalities, and severe hematopoietic defects in mice with a targeted deletion of the bmi-1 proto-oncogene. Genes Dev 8(7):757-69 |
abstractText | The bmi-1 proto-oncogene has been implicated in B-cell lymphomagenesis in E mu-myc transgenic mice. Distinct domains of the Bmi-1 protein are highly conserved within the Drosophila protein Posterior Sex Combs, a member of the Polycomb group involved in maintaining stable repression of homeotic genes during development. We have inactivated the bmi-1 gene in the germ line of mice by homologous recombination in ES cells. Null mutant mice display three phenotypic alterations: (1) a progressive decrease in the number of hematopoietic cells and an impaired proliferative response of these cells to mitogens; (2) neurological abnormalities manifested by an ataxic gait and sporadic seizures; and (3) posterior transformation, in most cases along the complete anteroposterior axis of the skeleton. The observations indicate that Mbi-1 plays an important role in morphogenesis during embryonic development and in hematopoiesis throughout pre- and postnatal life. Furthermore, these data provide the first evidence of functional conservation of a mammalian Polycomb group homolog. |