Proper embryonic and postnatal skeletal development require coordination of myriad complex molecular mechanisms. Disruption of these processes, through genetic mutation, contributes to variation in skeletal development. We developed a high‐throughput N‐ethyl‐N‐nitrosourea (ENU)‐induced saturation mutagenesis skeletal screening approach in mice to identify genes required for proper skeletal development. Here, we report initial results from live‐animal X‐ray and dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry (DXA) imaging of 27,607 G3 mice from 806 pedigrees, testing the effects of 32,198 coding/splicing mutations in 13,020 genes. A total of 39.7% of all autosomal genes were severely damaged or destroyed by mutations tested twice or more in the homozygous state. Results from our study demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo mutagenesis to identify mouse models of skeletal disease. Furthermore, our study demonstrates how ENU mutagenesis provides opportunities to create and characterize putative hypomorphic mutations in developmentally essential genes. Finally, we present a viable mouse model and case report of recessive skeletal disease caused by mutations in FAM20B. Results from this study, including engineered mouse models, are made publicly available via the online Mutagenetix database. © 2021 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).

Embryonic formation and patterning of the vertebrate spinal column requires coordination of many molecular cues. After birth, the integrity of the spine is impacted by developmental abnormalities of the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems, which may result in deformities such as kyphosis and scoliosis. We sought to identify novel genetic mouse models of severe spine deformity by implementing in vivo skeletal radiography as part of a high-throughput saturation mutagenesis screen. We report selected examples of genetic mouse models following radiographic screening of 54,497 mice from 1,275 pedigrees. An estimated 30.44% of autosomal genes harbored predicted damaging alleles examined twice or more in the homozygous state. Of the 1,275 pedigrees screened, 7.4% presented with severe spine deformity developing in multiple mice, and of these, meiotic mapping implicated ENU alleles in 21% of pedigrees. Our study provides proof-of-concept that saturation mutagenesis is capable of discovering novel mouse models of human disease, including conditions with skeletal, neural, and neuromuscular pathologies. Furthermore, we report a mouse model of skeletal disease, including severe spine deformity, caused by recessive mutation in Scube3. By integrating results with a human clinical exome database, we identified a patient with undiagnosed skeletal disease who harbored recessive mutations in SCUBE3, and we demonstrated that disease-associated mutations are associated with reduced trans-activation of Smad signaling in vitro. All radiographic results and mouse models are made publicly available through the Mutagenetix online database with the goal of advancing understanding of spine development and discovering novel mouse models of human disease.

The photoreceptor outer segment is a specialized primary cilium, and anchoring of the basal body at the apical membrane is required for outer segment formation. We hypothesized that basal body localization and outer segment formation would require the microtubule motor dynein 1 and analyzed the zebrafish cannonball and mike oko mutants, which carry mutations in the heavy chain subunit of cytoplasmic dynein 1 (dync1h1) and the p150Glued subunit of Dynactin (dctn1a). The distribution of Rab6, a player in the post-Golgi trafficking of rhodopsin, was also examined. Basal body docking was unaffected in both mutants, but Rab6 expression was reduced. The results suggest that dynein 1 is dispensable for basal body docking but that outer segment defects may be due to defects in post-Golgi trafficking.

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