The site of action of the naked locus (N) in the mouse as determined by dermal-epidermal recombinations.

The dermal-epidermal recombination technique was used to determine the site of action of the naked (N) locus in the skin of the mouse. The skin of athymic (nude) mice was used as a host site for growth of recombined epidermis and dermis from 13- and 14-day N/+ and +/+ embryos. Grafts that contained mutant epidermis lost their hair by 26 days after grafting (at the end of the first hair cycle) and again after 47 days (at the end of the second hair cycle); grafts that contained normal epidermis retained hair throughout the experiment. It was concluded that the N locus acts in the epidermis.