Genomic regions controlling shape variation in the first upper molar of the house mouse

  1. Luisa F Pallares  Is a corresponding author
  2. Ronan Ledevin
  3. Sophie Pantalacci
  4. Leslie M Turner
  5. Eirikur Steingrimsson
  6. Sabrina Renaud
  1. Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Germany
  2. CNRS, University Lyon 1, France
  3. ENS de Lyon, France
  4. University of Iceland, Iceland

Abstract

Numerous loci of large effect have been shown to underlie phenotypic variation between species. However, loci with subtle effects are presumably more frequently involved in microevolutionary processes, but have rarely been discovered. We explore the genetic basis of shape variation in the first upper molar of hybrid mice between Mus musculus musculus and M. m. domesticus. We performed the first genome-wide association study for molar shape and used 3D surface morphometrics to quantify subtle variation between individuals. We show that many loci of small effect underlie phenotypic variation, and identify five genomic regions associated with tooth shape; one region contained the microphthalmia-associated transcription factor Mitf gene that has previously been associated with tooth malformations. Using a panel of five mutant laboratory strains, we show the effect of the Mitf gene on tooth shape. This is the first report of a gene causing subtle but consistent variation in tooth shape resembling variation in nature.

Data availability

The following previously published data sets were used

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Luisa F Pallares

    Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Ploen, Germany
    For correspondence
    pallares@princeton.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-6547-1901
  2. Ronan Ledevin

    Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, CNRS, University Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  3. Sophie Pantalacci

    Laboratoire de Biologie et Modélisation de la Cellule, ENS de Lyon, Lyon, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
  4. Leslie M Turner

    Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Ploen, Germany
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-5105-3546
  5. Eirikur Steingrimsson

    Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5826-7486
  6. Sabrina Renaud

    Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, CNRS, University Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-8730-3113

Funding

Agence Nationale de la Recherche (Bigtooth (ANR-11-BSV7-008))

  • Ronan Ledevin
  • Sophie Pantalacci
  • Sabrina Renaud

Icelandic Research Fund (152715-053)

  • Eirikur Steingrimsson

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Reviewing Editor

  1. Craig T Miller, University of California, Berkeley, United States

Ethics

Animal experimentation: The mice used for the association mapping were previously used in another study; details on animal experiment and ethics can be found in the original publication Turner et. al. 2012 Evolution.The mutant mice used for the validation of the gene Mitf were raised at the University of Iceland, BioMedical Center, under permit number 2013-03-01 from the Committee on Experimental Animals (Tilraunadýranefnd).

Version history

  1. Received: June 11, 2017
  2. Accepted: October 28, 2017
  3. Accepted Manuscript published: November 1, 2017 (version 1)
  4. Version of Record published: November 9, 2017 (version 2)

Copyright

© 2017, Pallares et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Luisa F Pallares
  2. Ronan Ledevin
  3. Sophie Pantalacci
  4. Leslie M Turner
  5. Eirikur Steingrimsson
  6. Sabrina Renaud
(2017)
Genomic regions controlling shape variation in the first upper molar of the house mouse
eLife 6:e29510.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29510

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https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.29510

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