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Investigating the effects of compound paralogous EPHB receptor mutations on mouse facial development |
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| Authors: | Sarah T Mincer Terren K Niethamer Teng Teng Jeffrey O Bush Christopher J Percival |
| Institution: | 1. Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA;2. Program in Craniofacial Biology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA Contribution: Data curation (equal), Project administration (equal), Writing - review & editing (equal);3. Program in Craniofacial Biology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA Department of Cell and Tissue Biology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA Contribution: Data curation (equal), Project administration (equal), Writing - review & editing (supporting);4. Program in Craniofacial Biology, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA;5. Department of Anthropology, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, USA |
| Abstract: | Background: Variation in facial shape may arise from the combinatorial or overlapping actions of paralogous genes. Given its many members, and overlapping expression and functions, the EPH receptor family is a compelling candidate source of craniofacial morphological variation. We performed a detailed morphometric analysis of an allelic series of E14.5 Ephb1-3 receptor mutants to determine the effect of each paralogous receptor gene on craniofacial morphology. Results: We found that Ephb1, Ephb2, and Ephb3 genotypes significantly influenced facial shape, but Ephb1 effects were weaker than Ephb2 and Ephb3 effects. Ephb2−/− and Ephb3−/− mutations affected similar aspects of facial morphology, but Ephb3−/− mutants had additional facial shape effects. Craniofacial differences across the allelic series were largely consistent with predicted additive genetic effects. However, we identified a potentially important nonadditive effect where Ephb1 mutants displayed different morphologies depending on the combination of other Ephb paralogs present, where Ephb1+/−, Ephb1−/−, and Ephb1−/−; Ephb3−/− mutants exhibited a consistent deviation from their predicted facial shapes. Conclusions: This study provides a detailed assessment of the effects of Ephb receptor gene paralogs on E14.5 mouse facial morphology and demonstrates how the loss of specific receptors contributes to facial dysmorphology. |
| Keywords: | additive genetic effects allometry craniofacial Efnb1 EPHRIN-B1 morphological variation |