Mutant Mouse: Kmt2d (lysine (K)-specific methyltransferase 2D) (MII4 LoxP Mouse)

Mll4-flox. Conditional knockout mice for the histone methyltransferase Mll4 (Kmt2d) will help understand its role as a tumor suppressor.

Mono- and di-methylations on histone H3 lysine 4 (H3K4me1 and H3K4me2) are epigenetic marks for transcriptional enhancers, which control cell type-specific gene expression. Mll4, also known as Kmt2d (lysine (K)-specific methyltransferase 2D), is a major mammalian histone H3K4 mono- and di-methyltransferase enriched on enhancers (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24368734). Mll4 knockout mice are early embryonic lethal, so we have generated Mll4 conditional knockout mice (Mll4-flox) in which exons 16-19 are flanked with loxP sites. Mll4 has been found to be a tumor suppressor gene mutated in a wide variety of human cancers. The Mll4-flox mice provide a valuable tool to study how Mll4 functions as a tumor suppressor and as an epigenetic regulator of cell-type-specific gene expression, cell differentiation and mouse development.

Publication

H3K4 mono- and di-methyltransferase MLL4 is required for enhancer activation during cell differentiation.

Lee JE, Wang C, Xu S, Cho YW, Wang L, Feng X, Baldridge A, Sartorelli V, Zhuang L, Peng W, Ge K.

Elife (2013 Dec) 2:e01503. Abstract/Full Text