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Inactivation of muscle chloride channel by transposon insertion in myotonic mice

Item Type:Article
Title:Inactivation of muscle chloride channel by transposon insertion in myotonic mice
Creators Name:Steinmeyer, K. and Klocke, R. and Ortland, C. and Gronemeier, M. and Jockusch, H. and Gruender, S. and Jentsch, T.J.
Abstract:MYOTONIA (stiffness and impaired relaxation of skeletal muscle) is a symptom of several diseases caused by repetitive firing of action potentials in muscle membranes. Purely myotonic human diseases are dominant myotonia congenita (Thomsen) and recessive generalized myotonia (Becker), whereas myotonic dystrophy is a systemic disease. Muscle hyperexcitability was attributed to defects in sodium channels and/or to a decrease in chloride conductance (in Becker's myotonia and in genetic animal models). Experimental blockage of Cl- conductance (normally 70-85% of resting conductance in muscle) in fact elicits myotonia. ADR mice are a realistic animal model for recessive autosomal myotonia. In addition to Cl- conductance, many other parameters are changed in muscles of homozygous animals. We have now cloned the major mammalian skeletal muscle chloride channel (ClC-1). Here we report that in ADR mice a transposon of the ETn family has inserted into the corresponding gene, destroying its coding potential for several membrane-spanning domains. Together with the lack of recombination between the Clc-1 gene and the adr locus, this strongly suggests a lack of functional chloride channels as the primary cause of mouse myotonia.
Keywords:Amino Acid Sequence, Base Sequence, Northern Blotting, Southern Blotting, Chloride Channels, Chlorides, Chromosome Mapping, Molecular Cloning, DNA, DNA Transposable Elements, Gene Expression, Membrane Proteins, Molecular Sequence Data, Myotonia, RNA Splicing, Messenger RNA, Animals, Mice
Source:Nature
ISSN:0028-0836
Publisher:Nature Publishing Group
Volume:354
Number:6351
Page Range:304-308
Date:28 November 1991
Official Publication:https://doi.org/10.1038/354304a0
PubMed:View item in PubMed

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