New complexities in relationship between gene mutation and embryo development

Posted by DMDD, on 11 April 2017

A large-scale study of DMDD data has shown that inactivating the same gene in mouse embryos that are virtually genetically identical can result in a wide range and severity of physical abnormalities. This suggests that the relationship between gene mutation and embryo development is more complex than previously thought.

A comparison of two embryos that are both missing the embryonic lethal gene Coro1c. The embryo on the right has abnormal viscerocranium (facial skeleton) morphology, while the embryo on the left does not.

The study considered 220 mouse embryos, each with one of 42 different genes inactivated. These genes are part of a set known as ‘embryonic lethal’, because they are so crucial to development that an embryo missing any one of them can’t survive to birth. Studying these genes can help us understand how embryos develop, why some miscarry and why some mutations can lead to abnormalities.

Read more on the DMDD’s blog, Annotations, here:

https://blog.dmdd.org.uk/new-complexities-in-relationship-between-gene-mutation-and-embryo-development/