2002 Volume 132 Issue 3 Pages 387-393
In our previous study, we identified a mouse gene, Gsl 5, that controls the expression of a glycolipid, GL-Y [Gal β1-4 (Fucα1-3) GlcNAcβ1-6 (Galβ1-3) GalNAcβ1-3 Galα1-4 Galβ1-4 Glcβ1-Cer], and the core 2 structure of O-linked glycans of glycoproteins, GlcNAcβ1-6 (Galβ1-3) GalNAcα-Ser/Thr, in a kidney tubular cell-specific manner through the regulation of UDP-GlcNAc β-1, 6-GlcNAc transferase (GNT). Regulation by the Gsl 5 gene occurs at the level of GNT mRNA and the recessive allele of Gsl 5 is rare and carried by DBA/2 and its related strains. Here, we report a sequence comparison of the 5'flanking region of the GNT gene among 5 laboratory strains and 10 wild-derived strains, demonstrating that the DBA/2 allele sequence is similar to the sequence carried by Asian Mus m. musculus and differs substantially from the East European M. m. musculus. These results suggest that the DBA/2 allele of Gsl 5 was introduced into laboratory mouse strains by Asian wild-derived mice. Phylogenetic comparison of the 5'flanking region sequences between the recessive and dominant Gsl 5 alleles indicates that mutations to create a functional Gsl 5 gene occurred approximately one million years ago during the subspeciation of M. musculus, and provides a case for studies on the creation of functional genes involved in tissue-specific transcriptional regulation.
