ArticleBMC genetics2008
Reduced body weight is a common effect of gene knockout in mice.
Article in BMC genetics, 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
60 citing papers in PubMed, 100 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Phenotype of a transient neonatal diabetes point mutation (SUR1-R1183W) in mice.Wellcome open research · 2020Article
- Genetic analysis of body weight in wild populations of medaka fish from different latitudes.PloS one · 2020Article
- Gene regulation underlies environmental adaptation in house mice.Genome research · 2018Article
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Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDuring a search for obesity candidate genes in a small region of the mouse genome, we noticed that many genes when knocked out influence body weight. To determine whether this was a general feature of gene knockout or a chance occurrence, we surveyed the Jackson Laboratory Mouse Genome Database for knockout mouse strains and their phenotypes. Body weights were not available for all strains so we also obtained body weight information by contacting a random sample of investigators responsible for a knockout strain.
resultsWe classified each knockout mouse strain as (1) lighter and smaller, (2) larger and heavier, or (3) the same weight, relative to control mice. We excluded knockout strains that died early in life, even though this type of lethality is often associated with a small embryo or reduced body size. Based on a dataset of 1,977 knockout strains, we found that that 31% of viable knockout mouse strains weighed less and an additional 3% weighed more than did controls.
conclusionBody weight is potentially a latent variable in about a third of experiments that use knockout mice and should be considered in interpreting experimental outcomes, e.g., in studies of hypertension, drug and hormone metabolism, organ development, cell proliferation and apoptosis, digestion, heart rate, or atherosclerosis. If we assume that the knockout genes we surveyed are representative then upward of 6,000 genes are predicted to influence the size of a mouse. Body weight is highly heritable, and numerous quantitative trait loci have been mapped in mice, but "multigenic" is an insufficient term for the thousands of loci that could contribute to this complex trait.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.