Journal Article

The large-scale Munich ENU-mouse-mutagenesis screen

Soewarto, D, Heffner, S, Rathkolb, B, de Angelis, MH, Marschall, S, Wolf, E, Pargent, W, Fella, C, Balling, R, Teubner, A

2000

Overview

Within the next few years the complete sequence of the human genome will be available (Schuler et al. 1996), and the postgenome era will start with the systematic analysis of gene function and its role in human pathogenesis and disease. Characterization of spontaneous and induced mutants, the analysis of transgenic and gene-targeted phenotypes in animals, i.e., fruitfly, zebrafish, or rodents, are common tools to obtain insight into the biological function of genes. With respect to the genetics and pathogenesis of human diseases, animal models are essential for further investigations; and in particular, the mouse has had a major role as a model system owing to the similarity of its genome, developmental and biochemical pathways, and physiology to humans. Two different strategies can be attempted for the systematic production of mutant phenotypes in the mouse: the gene-driven approach is based on the mouse embryonic stem cell technology, in which mouse mutants can be generated for any targeted mutation engineered through homologous recombination.