The Near-Naked Hairless Mutation Disrupts Hair Formation but Is Not Due to a Mutation in the Hairless Coding Region
TLDR The near-naked hairless mutation causes hair loss but is not due to a mutation in the hairless gene itself.
The study investigated the near-naked hairless (HrN) mutation in mice, which caused hair loss as the postnatal coat emerged and displayed semi-dominant inheritance. HrN/HrN mice had dystrophic hairs that failed to emerge from follicles, while HrN/+ mice had a sparse coat and milder follicular dystrophy. DNA microarray analysis showed downregulation of many genes crucial for hair structure in HrN/HrN mice, with increased Hr expression. Sequencing the Hr gene regions did not identify the mutation, suggesting HrN might result from a mutation in a closely linked gene or a regulatory mutation in Hr.
