ALBERT

Description: Meis1 is a highly conserved transcription factor that is activated in a regionally restricted manner from early stages of development. Meis1 belongs to the three amino acid loop extension (TALE) homeodomain family. Together with Pbx1, Meis1 plays a major role as a Hox cofactor and therefore plays an essential role in the development of several embryonic organs and systems, including limbs, heart, blood and vasculature. In addition Meis1 is required for the development of Hox-free embryonic regions and interacts with non-Hox homeodomain and non-homeodomain transcription factors. During postnatal life Meis1 is involved in adult cardiomyocyte homeostasis and has been associated with predisposition to human neural and cardiac pathologies. Given the relevance of this transcription factor, we have developed two new Meis1 gene knockin models; a direct ECFP knockin insertion that allows the direct identification of Meis1 -expressing cells in living tissues, and a CreERT2 insertion that allows the inducible genetic tracing of Meis1 -expressing cells in a time-controlled manner. Importantly, these two alleles represent the first Meis1 mutations in which Meis1 protein production is completely eliminated. These newly targeted Meis1 alleles will be valuable tools to further our understanding of the role of this critical transcription factor during development and disease. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Description: The extent to which low-frequency (minor allele frequency (MAF) between 1-5%) and rare (MAF 〈/= 1%) variants contribute to complex traits and disease in the general population is mainly unknown. Bone mineral density (BMD) is highly heritable, a major predictor of osteoporotic fractures, and has been previously associated with common genetic variants, as well as rare, population-specific, coding variants. Here we identify novel non-coding genetic variants with large effects on BMD (ntotal = 53,236) and fracture (ntotal = 508,253) in individuals of European ancestry from the general population. Associations for BMD were derived from whole-genome sequencing (n = 2,882 from UK10K (ref. 10); a population-based genome sequencing consortium), whole-exome sequencing (n = 3,549), deep imputation of genotyped samples using a combined UK10K/1000 Genomes reference panel (n = 26,534), and de novo replication genotyping (n = 20,271). We identified a low-frequency non-coding variant near a novel locus, EN1, with an effect size fourfold larger than the mean of previously reported common variants for lumbar spine BMD (rs11692564(T), MAF = 1.6%, replication effect size = +0.20 s.d., Pmeta = 2 x 10(-14)), which was also associated with a decreased risk of fracture (odds ratio = 0.85; P = 2 x 10(-11); ncases = 98,742 and ncontrols = 409,511). Using an En1(cre/flox) mouse model, we observed that conditional loss of En1 results in low bone mass, probably as a consequence of high bone turnover. We also identified a novel low-frequency non-coding variant with large effects on BMD near WNT16 (rs148771817(T), MAF = 1.2%, replication effect size = +0.41 s.d., Pmeta = 1 x 10(-11)). In general, there was an excess of association signals arising from deleterious coding and conserved non-coding variants. These findings provide evidence that low-frequency non-coding variants have large effects on BMD and fracture, thereby providing rationale for whole-genome sequencing and improved imputation reference panels to study the genetic architecture of complex traits and disease in the general population.〈br /〉〈br /〉〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4755714/" target="_blank"〉〈img src="https://static.pubmed.gov/portal/portal3rc.fcgi/4089621/img/3977009" border="0"〉〈/a〉   〈a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4755714/" target="_blank"〉This paper as free author manuscript - peer-reviewed and accepted for publication〈/a〉〈br /〉〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Zheng, Hou-Feng -- Forgetta, Vincenzo -- Hsu, Yi-Hsiang -- Estrada, Karol -- Rosello-Diez, Alberto -- Leo, Paul J -- Dahia, Chitra L -- Park-Min, Kyung Hyun -- Tobias, Jonathan H -- Kooperberg, Charles -- Kleinman, Aaron -- Styrkarsdottir, Unnur -- Liu, Ching-Ti -- Uggla, Charlotta -- Evans, Daniel S -- Nielson, Carrie M -- Walter, Klaudia -- Pettersson-Kymmer, Ulrika -- McCarthy, Shane -- Eriksson, Joel -- Kwan, Tony -- Jhamai, Mila -- Trajanoska, Katerina -- Memari, Yasin -- Min, Josine -- Huang, Jie -- Danecek, Petr -- Wilmot, Beth -- Li, Rui -- Chou, Wen-Chi -- Mokry, Lauren E -- Moayyeri, Alireza -- Claussnitzer, Melina -- Cheng, Chia-Ho -- Cheung, Warren -- Medina-Gomez, Carolina -- Ge, Bing -- Chen, Shu-Huang -- Choi, Kwangbom -- Oei, Ling -- Fraser, James -- Kraaij, Robert -- Hibbs, Matthew A -- Gregson, Celia L -- Paquette, Denis -- Hofman, Albert -- Wibom, Carl -- Tranah, Gregory J -- Marshall, Mhairi -- Gardiner, Brooke B -- Cremin, Katie -- Auer, Paul -- Hsu, Li -- Ring, Sue -- Tung, Joyce Y -- Thorleifsson, Gudmar -- Enneman, Anke W -- van Schoor, Natasja M -- de Groot, Lisette C P G M -- van der Velde, Nathalie -- Melin, Beatrice -- Kemp, John P -- Christiansen, Claus -- Sayers, Adrian -- Zhou, Yanhua -- Calderari, Sophie -- van Rooij, Jeroen -- Carlson, Chris -- Peters, Ulrike -- Berlivet, Soizik -- Dostie, Josee -- Uitterlinden, Andre G -- Williams, Stephen R -- Farber, Charles -- Grinberg, Daniel -- LaCroix, Andrea Z -- Haessler, Jeff -- Chasman, Daniel I -- Giulianini, Franco -- Rose, Lynda M -- Ridker, Paul M -- Eisman, John A -- Nguyen, Tuan V -- Center, Jacqueline R -- Nogues, Xavier -- Garcia-Giralt, Natalia -- Launer, Lenore L -- Gudnason, Vilmunder -- Mellstrom, Dan -- Vandenput, Liesbeth -- Amin, Najaf -- van Duijn, Cornelia M -- Karlsson, Magnus K -- Ljunggren, Osten -- Svensson, Olle -- Hallmans, Goran -- Rousseau, Francois -- Giroux, Sylvie -- Bussiere, Johanne -- Arp, Pascal P -- Koromani, Fjorda -- Prince, Richard L -- Lewis, Joshua R -- Langdahl, Bente L -- Hermann, A Pernille -- Jensen, Jens-Erik B -- Kaptoge, Stephen -- Khaw, Kay-Tee -- Reeve, Jonathan -- Formosa, Melissa M -- Xuereb-Anastasi, Angela -- Akesson, Kristina -- McGuigan, Fiona E -- Garg, Gaurav -- Olmos, Jose M -- Zarrabeitia, Maria T -- Riancho, Jose A -- Ralston, Stuart H -- Alonso, Nerea -- Jiang, Xi -- Goltzman, David -- Pastinen, Tomi -- Grundberg, Elin -- Gauguier, Dominique -- Orwoll, Eric S -- Karasik, David -- Davey-Smith, George -- AOGC Consortium -- Smith, Albert V -- Siggeirsdottir, Kristin -- Harris, Tamara B -- Zillikens, M Carola -- van Meurs, Joyce B J -- Thorsteinsdottir, Unnur -- Maurano, Matthew T -- Timpson, Nicholas J -- Soranzo, Nicole -- Durbin, Richard -- Wilson, Scott G -- Ntzani, Evangelia E -- Brown, Matthew A -- Stefansson, Kari -- Hinds, David A -- Spector, Tim -- Cupples, L Adrienne -- Ohlsson, Claes -- Greenwood, Celia M T -- UK10K Consortium -- Jackson, Rebecca D -- Rowe, David W -- Loomis, Cynthia A -- Evans, David M -- Ackert-Bicknell, Cheryl L -- Joyner, Alexandra L -- Duncan, Emma L -- Kiel, Douglas P -- Rivadeneira, Fernando -- Richards, J Brent -- G1000143/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- K01 AR062655/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- MC_UU_12013/3/Medical Research Council/United Kingdom -- R01 AG005394/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 AG005407/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 AG027574/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 AG027576/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- R01 AR035582/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- R01 AR035583/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- RC2 AR058973/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 AG018197/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- U01 AG042140/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- U01 AG042143/AG/NIA NIH HHS/ -- U01 AR045580/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 AR045583/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 AR045614/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 AR045632/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 AR045647/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 AR045654/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- U01 AR066160/AR/NIAMS NIH HHS/ -- England -- Nature. 2015 Oct 1;526(7571):112-7. doi: 10.1038/nature14878. Epub 2015 Sep 14.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Departments of Medicine, Human Genetics, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University, Montreal H3A 1A2, Canada. ; Department of Medicine, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research, Jewish General Hospital, McGill University, Montreal H3T 1E2, Canada. ; Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Boston, Massachusetts 02131, USA. ; Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam 3015GE, The Netherlands. ; Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. ; Developmental Biology Program, Sloan Kettering Institute, New York, New York 10065, USA. ; The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, Translational Research Institute, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane 4102, Australia. ; Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York 10065, USA. ; Tissue Engineering, Regeneration and Repair Program, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York 10021, USA. ; Rheumatology Divison, Hospital for Special Surgery New York, New York 10021, USA. ; School of Clinical Science, University of Bristol, Bristol BS10 5NB, UK. ; MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2BN, UK. ; Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA. ; Department of Research, 23andMe, Mountain View, California 94041, USA. ; Department of Population Genomics, deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik IS-101, Iceland. ; Department of Biostatistics, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02118, USA. ; Centre for Bone and Arthritis Research, Department of Internal Medicine and Clinical Nutrition, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg S-413 45, Sweden. ; California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute, San Francisco, California 94158, USA. ; Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Oregon Health &Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA. ; Bone &Mineral Unit, Oregon Health &Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA. ; Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK. ; Departments of Pharmacology and Clinical Neurosciences, Umea University, Umea S-901 87, Sweden. ; Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umea University, Umea SE-901 87, Sweden. ; Centre for Bone and Arthritis Research, Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg S-413 45, Sweden. ; McGill University and Genome Quebec Innovation Centre, Montreal H3A 0G1, Canada. ; Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam 3015GE, The Netherlands. ; Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute, Oregon Health &Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA. ; Department of Medical and Clinical Informatics, Oregon Health &Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA. ; Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, University College London, London NW1 2DA, UK. ; Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, King's College London, London SE1 7EH, UK. ; Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. ; Department of Human Genetics, McGill University, Montreal H3A 1B1, Canada. ; Netherlands Genomics Initiative (NGI)-sponsored Netherlands Consortium for Healthy Aging (NCHA), Leiden 2300RC, The Netherlands. ; Center for Musculoskeletal Research, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA. ; Department of Biochemistry and Goodman Cancer Research Center, McGill University, Montreal H3G 1Y6, Canada. ; Department of Computer Science, Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas 78212, USA. ; Musculoskeletal Research Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol BS10 5NB, UK. ; Department of Radiation Sciences, Umea University, Umea S-901 87, Sweden. ; School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53726, USA. ; School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 2BN, UK. ; Department of Statistics, deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik IS-101, Iceland. ; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the EMGO Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam 1007 MB, The Netherlands. ; Department of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, Wageningen 6700 EV, The Netherlands. ; Department of Internal Medicine, Section Geriatrics, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam 1105, The Netherlands. ; Nordic Bioscience, Herlev 2730, Denmark. ; Cordeliers Research Centre, INSERM UMRS 1138, Paris 75006, France. ; Institute of Cardiometabolism and Nutrition, University Pierre &Marie Curie, Paris 75013, France. ; Departments of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine), Centre for Public Health Genomics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908, USA. ; Department of Genetics, University of Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Spain. ; U-720, Centre for Biomedical Network Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER), Barcelona 28029, Spain. ; Department of Human Molecular Genetics, The Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB), Barcelona 08028, Spain. ; Women's Health Center of Excellence Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California - San Diego, San Diego, California 92093, USA. ; Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA. ; Osteoporosis &Bone Biology Program, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, Sydney 2010, Australia. ; School of Medicine Sydney, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney 6959, Australia. ; St. Vincent's Hospital &Clinical School, NSW University, Sydney 2010, Australia. ; Musculoskeletal Research Group, Institut Hospital del Mar d'Investigacions Mediques, Barcelona 08003, Spain. ; Cooperative Research Network on Aging and Fragility (RETICEF), Institute of Health Carlos III, 28029, Spain. ; Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital del Mar, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Barcelona 08193, Spain. ; Neuroepidemiology Section, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. ; Icelandic Heart Association, Kopavogur IS-201, Iceland. ; Faculty of Medicine, University of Iceland, Reykjavik IS-101, Iceland. ; Genetic epidemiology unit, Department of Epidemiology, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam 3000CA, The Netherlands. ; Department of Orthopaedics, Skane University Hospital Malmo 205 02, Sweden. ; Department of Medical Sciences, University of Uppsala, Uppsala 751 85, Sweden. ; Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Umea Unviersity, Umea 901 85, Sweden. ; Department of Molecular Biology, Medical Biochemistry and Pathology, Universite Laval, Quebec City G1V 0A6, Canada. ; Axe Sante des Populations et Pratiques Optimales en Sante, Centre de recherche du CHU de Quebec, Quebec City G1V 4G2, Canada. ; Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Nedlands 6009, Australia. ; Department of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth 6009, Australia. ; Department of Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus C 8000, Denmark. ; Department of Endocrinology, Odense University Hospital, Odense C 5000, Denmark. ; Department of Endocrinology, Hvidovre University Hospital, Hvidovre 2650, Denmark. ; Clinical Gerontology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 2QQ, UK. ; Medicine and Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB1 8RN, UK. ; Institute of Musculoskeletal Sciences, The Botnar Research Centre, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LD, UK. ; Department of Applied Biomedical Science, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Malta, Msida MSD 2080, Malta. ; Clinical and Molecular Osteoporosis Research Unit, Department of Clinical Sciences Malmo, Lund University, 205 02, Sweden. ; Department of Medicine and Psychiatry, University of Cantabria, Santander 39011, Spain. ; Department of Internal Medicine, Hospital U.M. Valdecilla- IDIVAL, Santander 39008, Spain. ; Department of Legal Medicine, University of Cantabria, Santander 39011, Spain. ; Centre for Genomic and Experimental Medicine, Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Western General Hospital, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH4 2XU, UK. ; Department of Reconstructive Sciences, College of Dental Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, Connecticut 06030, USA. ; Department of Medicine and Physiology, McGill University, Montreal H4A 3J1, Canada. ; Department of Medicine, Oregon Health &Science University, Portland, Oregon 97239, USA. ; Faculty of Medicine in the Galilee, Bar-Ilan University, Safed 13010, Israel. ; Laboratory of Epidemiology, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892, USA. ; Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195, USA. ; School of Medicine and Pharmacology, University of Western Australia, Crawley 6009, Australia. ; Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine, Ioannina 45110, Greece. ; Department of Health Services, Policy and Practice, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, Rhode Island 02903, USA. ; deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik IS-101, Iceland. ; Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, Massachusetts 01702, USA. ; Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, McGill University, Montreal H3A 1A2, Canada. ; Department of Oncology, Gerald Bronfman Centre, McGill University, Montreal H2W 1S6, Canada. ; Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA. ; The Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology and Department of Cell Biology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA. ; Department of Diabetes and Endocrinology, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane 4029, Australia.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26367794" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: Vertebrate limbs develop three main proximodistal (PD) segments (upper arm, forearm, and hand) in a proximal-to-distal sequence. Despite extensive research into limb development, whether PD specification occurs through nonautonomous or autonomous mechanisms is not resolved. Heterotopic transplantation of intact and recombinant chicken limb buds identifies signals in the embryo trunk that proximalize distal limb cells to generate a complete PD axis. In these transplants, retinoic acid induces proximalization, which is counteracted by fibroblast growth factors from the distal limb bud; these related actions suggest that the first limb-bud PD regionalization results from the balance between proximal and distal signals. The plasticity of limb progenitor cell identity in response to diffusible signals provides a unifying view of PD patterning during vertebrate limb development and regeneration.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Rosello-Diez, Alberto -- Ros, Maria A -- Torres, Miguel -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2011 May 27;332(6033):1086-8. doi: 10.1126/science.1199489.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Departamento de Desarrollo y Reparacion Cardiovascular, Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, c/ Melchor Fernandez Almagro, 3, E-28029 Madrid, Spain.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21617076" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉

Description: For neural systems to function effectively, the numbers of each cell type must be proportioned properly during development. We found that conditional knockout of the mouse homeobox genes En1 and En2 in the excitatory cerebellar nuclei neurons (eCN) leads to reduced postnatal growth of the cerebellar cortex. A subset of medial and intermediate eCN are lost in the mutants, with an associated cell non-autonomous loss of their presynaptic partner Purkinje cells by birth leading to proportional scaling down of neuron production in the postnatal cerebellar cortex. Genetic killing of embryonic eCN throughout the cerebellum also leads to loss of Purkinje cells and reduced postnatal growth but throughout the cerebellar cortex. Thus, the eCN play a key role in scaling the size of the cerebellum by influencing the survival of their Purkinje cell partners, which in turn regulate production of granule cells and interneurons via the amount of sonic hedgehog secreted.

Description: Regulation of organ growth is a poorly understood process. In the long bones, the growth plates (GPs) drive elongation by generating a scaffold progressively replaced by bone. Although studies have focused on intrinsic GP regulation, classic and recent experiments suggest that local signals also modulate GP function. We devised a genetic mouse model to study extrinsic long bone growth modulation, in which injury is specifically induced in the left hindlimb, such that the right hindlimb serves as an internal control. Remarkably, when only mesenchyme cells surrounding postnatal GPs were killed, left bone growth was nevertheless reduced. GP signaling was impaired by altered paracrine signals from the knee joint, including activation of the injury response and, in neonates, dampened IGF1 production. Importantly, only the combined prevention of both responses rescued neonatal growth. Thus, we identified signals from the knee joint that modulate bone growth and could underlie establishment of body proportions.