A mutation in the beta-globin gene detected in the progeny of a female mouse treated with ethylnitrosourea.

A mouse with a variant hemoglobin was discovered during electrophoretic screening of (C57BL/6J X DBA/2J)F1 progeny of females treated with ethylnitrosourea. The variant trait was transmitted as a simple Mendelian alternate at the Hbb locus in all crosses except those involving the original carrier of the mutation. The proband mouse which received the mutation directly from the mutagen-treated parent was a germinal mosaic for the mutant and normal Hbbs alleles. The mutant allele was designated Hbbs2. The mutant haplotype specifies both an electrophoretically fast hemoglobin band and a hemoglobin band in the normal beta single hemoglobin position. Thus, the mutation has altered one of the tandemly duplicated genes at the Hbbs locus. A comparison of the relative concentrations of the two hemoglobins in Hbbs2 mice demonstrates preferential expression of the mutant gene, possibly analogous to the enhanced expression of Hbbdmaj in the Hbbd haplotype. Analysis of the amino acid sequence of the variant beta-globin revealed that the valine at position 60 was changed to glutamic acid. The simplest mutation mechanism for such an alteration is an A X T----T X A transversion.