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The insulin dependent type 1 diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and the metabolic syndrome are complex human diseases. Both diseases are heterogeneous, genetically inherited and do not follow a simple Mendelian single-locus pattern. The analysis of complex human diseases is complicated both by genetic heterogeneity and by environmental factors. One way to overcome the problem of genetic heterogeneity in humans may be to cluster patients by kinship. It was shown by analysis of maternal lines of type 1 diabetics using mitochondrial DNA that 89% of maternal lines are related to each other. Moreover, an alternative to the genetic differential analysis of complex mammalian diseases is the use of animal models. The availability of inbred animal models closely resembling the human disease is an essential component of genetic investigations in this field, as shown in the results of this work. These findings do not only underscore the utility of the congenic and subcongenic approach in differentially analyzing complex traits, but also show that candidate genes can be identified and that chromosomal exchange can variously influence the phenotype, leading to sub-phenotypes which may be representative for human beings. Furthermore, it will also be possible to locate the syntenic region in the human genome and congenic and subcongenic strains can also be used to study interactions between chromosomal regions and various selected environmental conditions. In this way, it may be possible to learn which region can be influenced by environmental factors and to which extent, an undertaking which will require prospective projects.
Cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are prevalent slow-flow vascular lesions which harbour the risk to develop intracranial haemorrhages, focal neurological deficits, and epileptic seizures. Autosomal dominantly inherited CCMs were found to be associated with heterozygous inactivating mutations in 3 genes, CCM1(KRIT1), CCM2(MGC4607), and CCM3(PDCD10) in 1999, 2003 and 2005, respectively. Despite the availability of high-throughput sequencing techniques, no further CCM gene has been published since. Here, we report on the identification of an autosomal dominantly inherited frameshift mutation in a gene of thus far unknown function, FAM222B(C17orf63), through exome sequencing of CCM patients mutation-negative for CCM1-3. A yeast 2-hybrid screen revealed interactions of FAM222B with the tubulin cytoskeleton and STAMBP which is known to be associated with microcephaly-capillary malformation syndrome. However, a phenotype similar to existing models was not found, neither in fam222bb/fam222ba double mutant zebrafish generated by transcription activator-like effector nucleases nor in an in vitro sprouting assay using human umbilical vein endothelial cells transfected with siRNA against FAM222B. These observations led to the assumption that aberrant FAM222B is not involved in the formation of CCMs.