Disease relevance of Dnd1

• A mutation in the Ter gene causing increased susceptibility to testicular teratomas maps to mouse chromosome 18 [1].
• The Ter mutation in laboratory mice is novel in that it acts codominantly to reduce germ cell numbers on many inbred strain backgrounds and to enhance dramatically inherited predisposition to spontaneous testicular teratocarcinomas in strain 129 inbred mice [1].
• In 129-Ter/Ter mice, some of the remaining PGCs transform into undifferentiated pluripotent embryonal carcinoma cells, and after birth differentiate into various cells and tissues that compose TGCTs [2].

Psychiatry related information on Dnd1

• Dnd1 is expressed in fetal gonads during the critical period when TGCTs originate [2].

High impact information on Dnd1

• We have adopted a PCR-based, DNA pooling method for mice with 'extreme' phenotypes (small testes versus normal-sized testes) to identify a candidate linkage to the Ter locus [1].
• These approaches showed that several spontaneous and engineered mutations interact with 129/Sv-derived susceptibility genes to enhance or suppress susceptibility; two of these mutations (Ter and Trp53) revealed novel linkages for susceptibility genes in sensitized polygenic trait analysis [3].
• PGC deficiency is corrected both with bacterial artificial chromosomes that contain Dnd1 and with a Dnd1-encoding transgene [2].

Biological context of Dnd1

• In this paper, we review the genetics and development of germ cell tumours in 129/Sv mice, summarize the status of Ter mapping, and provide evidence that different genetic pathways lead to unilateral and bilateral tumours [4].

References