Mouse Sox8 is located between, not within, the t-complex deletions t(w18) and t(h20) on chromosome 17

The SOX family of developmental transcription factors is known to play crit ical roles in cell lineage specification, fate determination and differenti ation during development in diverse phyla. Their importance is underscored by their involvement in a number of human diseases and mouse mutants, and b y targeted mutation in mice. SOX8 is broadly expressed during development a nd is located on human chromosome 16p and within the t-complex on mouse chr omosome 17, in the vicinity of two mutations t(w18) and t(h20). Here we ana lyse mutant genomic DNA to show that the Sox8 gene locus lies outside the d eletion regions of both t(w18) and t(h20) and between these deletions. Thes e data exclude Sox8 from contributing to the t(w18) and t(h20) phenotypes, and provide an additional marker for structural characterization of this co mplex genomic region. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.