The MFSD12 p.Tyr182His common variant is sufficient to alter mouse agouti coat color.

MFSD12 functions as a transmembrane protein required for import of cysteine into melanosomes and lysosomes. The MFSD12 locus has been associated with phenotypic variation in skin color across African, Latin American, and East Asian populations. The frequency of a particular MFSD12 coding variant, rs2240751 (MAF = 0.08), has been reported to correlate with solar radiation and occur at highest frequency in Peruvian (PEL MAF = 0.48) and Han Chinese (CHB MAF = 0.40) populations, suggesting it could be causative for associated phenotypic variation in skin color. We have generated a mouse knock-in allele, Mfsd12Y182H , to model the human missense p.Tyr182His human variant. We demonstrate that the variant transcript is stably expressed and that agouti mice homozygote for the variant allele are viable with an altered coat color. This in vivo data confirms that the MFSD12 p.Tyr182His variant functions as a hypomorphic allele sufficient to alter mammalian pigmentation.

A sensitized mutagenesis screen identifies Gli3 as a modifier of Sox10 neurocristopathy.

Haploinsufficiency for the transcription factor SOX10 is associated with the pigmentary deficiencies of Waardenburg syndrome (WS) and is modeled in Sox10 haploinsufficient mice (Sox10(LacZ/+)). As genetic background affects WS severity in both humans and mice, we established an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis screen to identify modifiers that increase the phenotypic severity of Sox10(LacZ/+) mice. Analysis of 230 pedigrees identified three modifiers, named modifier of Sox10 neurocristopathies (Mos1, Mos2 and Mos3). Linkage analysis confirmed their locations on mouse chromosomes 13, 4 and 3, respectively, within regions distinct from previously identified WS loci. Positional candidate analysis of Mos1 identified a truncation mutation in a hedgehog(HH)-signaling mediator, GLI-Kruppel family member 3 (Gli3). Complementation tests using a second allele of Gli3 (Gli3(Xt-J)) confirmed that a null mutation of Gli3 causes the increased hypopigmentation in Sox10(LacZ/+);Gli3(Mos1/)(+) double heterozygotes. Early melanoblast markers (Mitf, Sox10, Dct, and Si) are reduced in Gli3(Mos1/)(Mos1) embryos, indicating that loss of GLI3 signaling disrupts melanoblast specification. In contrast, mice expressing only the GLI3 repressor have normal melanoblast specification, indicating that the full-length GLI3 activator is not required for specification of neural crest to the melanocyte lineage. This study demonstrates the feasibility of sensitized screens to identify disease modifier loci and implicates GLI3 and other HH signaling components as modifiers of human neurocristopathies.