Compound mouse mutants of bZIP transcription factors Mafg and Mafk reveal a regulatory network of non-crystallin genes associated with cataract.

ABSTRACT: Although majority of the genes linked to early-onset cataract exhibit lens fiber cell-enriched expression, our understanding of gene regulation in these cells is limited to function of just eight transcription factors and largely in the context of crystallins. We report on small Maf transcription factors Mafg and Mafk as regulators of several non-crystallin human cataract-associated genes in fiber cells and establish their significance to this disease. We applied a bioinformatics tool for cataract gene discovery iSyTE to identify Mafg and its co-regulators in the lens, and generated various null-allelic combinations of Mafg:Mafk mouse mutants for phenotypic and molecular analysis. By age 4 months, Mafg-/-:Mafk+/- mutants exhibit lens defects that progressively develop into cataract. High-r

SUBMITTER: Agrawal SA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4486474 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature