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An IL-7 splicing-defect lymphopenia mouse model revealed by genome-wide mutagenesis

  • Published:
Journal of Biomedical Science

An Erratum to this article was published on 17 May 2007

Abstract

Homeostasis of the hematopoietic system is tightly regulated by an array of cytokines that control proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of various cell lineages. To identify genes that are essential for hematopoietic homeostasis, we screened C57BL/6 mice that had been genome-wide mutagenized by N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) to produce altered blood cell composition. We identified a mutant mouse line with a drastic reduction in the number of T and B cell lineages in lymphatic tissues and peripheral blood, as well as severe atrophy of the thymus and lymph nodes. Genotyping with a genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker set mapped the mutant phenotype to chromosome 3A and subsequent direct DNA sequencing revealed a G-to-A point mutation in the splicing donor site of the third exon of the candidate gene for IL-7, a lymphocyte survival cytokine. Such mutation resulted in skipping of exon 3 and production of an internally truncated IL-7 (ΔE3-IL7). Furthermore, using recombinant proteins produced in a baculoviral system, we demonstrated that ΔE3-IL7 had no detectable anti-apoptotic activity even at a dose that was 30 times more than that required for a wild-type protein to manifest a full activity in a naïve T cell survival assay. Our data suggest that this mutant mouse line␣provides an alternative animal model for the study of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) syndrome in humans.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Jia-Zu Chen, Wan-Chen Hsieh, Chien-Tsang Sun and Yoo-Hsan Lin for their technical assistance, and to Drs. Yuan-Tsong Chen, Chien-Kuo Lee, and Hsin-Fang Yang-Yen for their critical reading of this manuscript. We thank the ENU mutagenesis core for providing G3 mice and the National Genotyping center for technical support. This work was supported by the Genomics and Proteomics Program from Academia Sinica, Taiwan to JJY.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Academia Sinica, No. 128, Sec.2, Yen-Jiou-Yuan Rd., Taipei, 11529, Taiwan

    Hong-Wen Huang, Yun-Jung Chiang & Jeffrey Jong-Young Yen

  2. Genotyping Center, Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan

    Shuen-Iu Hung

  3. Stem Cell Program, Institute of Cellular & Organismic Biology/Genomics Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan

    Chung-Leung Li

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  1. Hong-Wen Huang
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  2. Yun-Jung Chiang
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Correspondence to Jeffrey Jong-Young Yen.

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An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11373-007-9174-2

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Huang, HW., Chiang, YJ., Hung, SI. et al. An IL-7 splicing-defect lymphopenia mouse model revealed by genome-wide mutagenesis. J Biomed Sci 14, 169–181 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11373-006-9135-1

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