Gerlai R
GENENTECH Inc., Neuroscience Dept, South San Francisco, CA 94080-4990, USA.
Trends Neurosci. 1996 May;19(5):177-81. doi: 10.1016/s0166-2236(96)20020-7.
Gene targeting to create null mutations in mice is a powerful new tool in biology which will allow the molecular dissection of complex phenotypes such as mammalian brain function, and learning and memory. However, the attempt to interpret the phenotypical changes which arise in null-mutant mice is subject to several caveats. For example, the ability to disrupt a single gene in a targeted manner might lead one to overlook the effects of other genes. Ignoring the genetic background might lead to misinterpretation of results: the present article will demonstrate that the phenotypical abnormalities attributed to the null mutation in several molecular neurobiological studies could simply result from the effects of background genes.
通过基因打靶在小鼠中创建无效突变是生物学中一种强大的新工具，它将有助于对复杂表型进行分子剖析，如哺乳动物的脑功能、学习和记忆。然而，解释无效突变小鼠中出现的表型变化时需要注意几个问题。例如，以靶向方式破坏单个基因的能力可能会导致人们忽略其他基因的影响。忽视遗传背景可能会导致对结果的错误解读：本文将证明，在一些分子神经生物学研究中归因于无效突变的表型异常可能仅仅是背景基因作用的结果。
