Genetic Background Effects on the Expression of an Odorant Receptor Gene

There are more than 1000 odorant receptor (OR) genes in the mouse genome. Each olfactory sensory neuron expresses only one of these genes, in a monoallelic fashion. The transcript abundance of homologous OR genes vary between distinct mouse strains. Here we analyzed the expression of the OR gene (al...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in cellular neuroscience 2021-02, Vol.15, p.646413-646413
Main Authors: Leme Silva, Artur Guazzelli, Nagai, Maira Harume, Nakahara, Thiago Seike, Malnic, Bettina
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleles
Cloning
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
DNA methylation
Epigenetics
Gene expression
genetic background
Genetic diversity
Genomes
Laboratories
Neurons
Neuroscience
Nucleotide sequence
odorant receptor gene
Olfactory epithelium
olfactory receptor gene
Olfactory receptor neurons
Regulatory sequences
single nucleotide polymorphism
Transcription
Transcription factors
Citations: Items that this one cites
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Summary:There are more than 1000 odorant receptor (OR) genes in the mouse genome. Each olfactory sensory neuron expresses only one of these genes, in a monoallelic fashion. The transcript abundance of homologous OR genes vary between distinct mouse strains. Here we analyzed the expression of the OR gene (also named P2) in different genomic contexts. is expressed at higher levels in the olfactory epithelium from 129 mice than from C57BL/6 (B6) mice. However, we found that in P2-IRES-tauGFP knock-in mice, the transcript levels of the 129 allele are highly reduced when compared to the B6 allele. To address the mechanisms involved in this variation we compared the 5' region sequence and DNA methylation patterns of the B6 and 129 alleles. Our results show that genetic variations in regulatory regions can lead to differential DNA methylation frequencies in these OR gene alleles. They also show that expression of the alleles is largely affected by the genetic background, and suggest that in knock-in mice, expression can be affected by epigenetic modifications in the region of the targeted locus.
ISSN:1662-5102
1662-5102
DOI:10.3389/fncel.2021.646413