reduced viability, fertility and fecundity in mice lacking the cajal body marker protein, coilin生存能力降低,生育和繁殖能力缺乏卡哈尔小鼠体内标记蛋白质,coilin.pdfVIP

Reduced Viability, Fertility and Fecundity in Mice Lacking the Cajal Body Marker Protein, Coilin 1,2 1 1,2 Michael P. Walker , Liping Tian , A. Gregory Matera * 1 Department of Genetics, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, 2 Departments of Biology and Genetics, Program in Molecular Biology Biotechnology, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America Abstract Background: Coilin is the signature protein of the Cajal body, a conserved nuclear organelle involved in multiple aspects of small ribonucleoprotein (RNP) biogenesis. Coilin is required for Cajal body homeostasis in both plants and animals. Mice lacking coilin are viable when the mutation is crossed to an outbred strain but only partially viable when crossed to inbred lines. Methodology/Principal Findings: In order to clarify this issue, we backcrossed the coilin deletion onto the C57BL6/J background for ten generations and then investigated the consequences of coilin removal on overall viability and reproductive success. We conclude that semi-lethal phenotype observed in mixed-background crosses is due to loss of the Coilin gene (or a very tightly-linked locus). Interestingly, coilin knockout embryos die relatively late in gestation, between E13.5 and birth. We show that the maternal contribution of coilin is not important for organismal viability. Importantly, coilin knockout mice display significant fertility and fecundity defects. Mutant males that escape the embryonic lethality display reduced testis size, however, both males and females contribute to the