A Mouse with Bad Hair and Poor Taste

The study investigated the tufted (tf) locus in BTBR mice, which caused hair loss and insensitivity to various tastes. By crossbreeding BTBR with NZW/LacJ mice and conducting genome scans, researchers linked taste preferences to chromosome 17. They developed a congenic line and identified a 0.8-Mb region with 21 genes, pinpointing Itpr3 as a key gene. Itpr3 knockout mice exhibited similar taste insensitivity, and sequencing revealed a 12-bp deletion in exon 23 of the BTBR Itpr3 gene, likely causing its dysfunction. This defective Itpr3 gene was responsible for both the hair loss and taste deficits in BTBR mice.