An immunohistochemical study of lens development in a mutant small eye and cataractous mouse.

The immunohistochemical method was used to study lens formation in a new dominant mouse strain with a small eye and lens cataract (gene symbol Cs). Antisera to pure alpha- and gamma-crystallins were used. In the homozygotes, the eyes have cataractous lenses about half the size of normal lenses. In the heterozygotes, the eyes show opacities of the lens but the lens itself is normal in size. The mouse strain has two genes in the same autosome which cause the phenogenetical characteristics of small eyes and cataracts. One reflects the defect of the gamma-crystallin synthesis in the secondary lens fibers in the equatorial zone. This is a recessive gene and it may cause the small lens. The other gene is responsible for the swollen, granular and misshaped fiber cells. This is a dominant gene like that in the Fraser's cataract and it may cause the cataract lens.