The fragilis interferon-inducible gene family of transmembrane proteins is associated with germ cell specification in mice.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Specification of primordial germ cells in mice depends on instructive signalling events, which act first to confer germ cell competence on epiblast cells, and second, to impose a germ cell fate upon competent precursors. fragilis, an interferon-inducible gene coding for a transmembrane protein, is the first gene to be implicated in the acquisition of germ cell competence. RESULTS:Here, we describe four additional fragilis-related genes, fragilis2-5, which are clustered within a 68 kb region in the vicinity of the fragilis locus on Chr 7. These genes exist in a number of mammalian species, which in the human are also clustered on the syntenic region on Chr 11. In the mouse, fragilis2 and fragilis3, which are proximate to fragilis, exhibit expression that overlaps with the latter

SUBMITTER: Lange UC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC153542 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature