Wrch1

RhoU (or Wrch1 or Chp2) is a small (~21 kDa) signaling G protein (more specifically a GTPase), and is a member of the Rho family of GTPases. Wrch1 was identified in 2001 as encoded by a non-canonical Wnt induced gene.^[1] RhoU/Wrch delineates with RhoV/Chp a Rho subclass related to Rac and Cdc42, which emerged in early multicellular organisms during evolution.^[2]

Model organisms

Rhou knockout mouse phenotype

Characteristic	Phenotype
Homozygote viability	Normal
Fertility	Normal
Body weight	Normal
Anxiety	Normal
Neurological assessment	Normal
Grip strength	Normal
Hot plate	Normal
Dysmorphology	Normal
Indirect calorimetry	Normal
Glucose tolerance test	Normal
Auditory brainstem response	Normal
DEXA	Normal
Radiography	Normal
Body temperature	Normal
Eye morphology	Normal
Clinical chemistry	Normal
Haematology	Normal
Peripheral blood lymphocytes	Normal
Micronucleus test	Normal
Heart weight	Normal
Eye Histopathology	Normal
Salmonella infection	Normal[3]
Citrobacter infection	Normal[4]
All tests and analysis from[5][6]

Model organisms have been used in the study of RhoU function. A conditional knockout mouse line, called Rhou^{tm1a(KOMP)Wtsi[7][8]} was generated as part of the International Knockout Mouse Consortium program — a high-throughput mutagenesis project to generate and distribute animal models of disease to interested scientists — at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.^[9][10][11]

Male and female animals underwent a standardized phenotypic screen to determine the effects of deletion.^[5][12] Twenty three tests were carried out on mutant mice, but no significant abnormalities were observed.^[5]

References

1. Tao W, Pennica D, Xu L, Kalejta RF, Levine AJ (2001). "Wrch-1, a novel member of the Rho gene family that is regulated by Wnt-1". Genes Dev. 15 (14): 1796–807. doi:10.1101/gad.894301. ISSN 0890-9369. PMC 312736. PMID 11459829.
2. Boureux A, Vignal E, Faure S, Fort P (2007). "Evolution of the Rho family of ras-like GTPases in eukaryotes". Mol Biol Evol. 24 (1): 203–16. doi:10.1093/molbev/msl145. ISSN 0021-9193. PMC 2665304. PMID 17035353.
3. "Salmonella infection data for Rhou". Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
4. "Citrobacter infection data for Rhou". Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
5. Gerdin AK (2010). "The Sanger Mouse Genetics Programme: High throughput characterisation of knockout mice". Acta Ophthalmologica. 88 (S248). doi:10.1111/j.1755-3768.2010.4142.x.
6. Mouse Resources Portal, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.
7. "International Knockout Mouse Consortium".
8. "Mouse Genome Informatics".
9. Skarnes, W. C.; Rosen, B.; West, A. P.; Koutsourakis, M.; Bushell, W.; Iyer, V.; Mujica, A. O.; Thomas, M.; Harrow, J.; Cox, T.; Jackson, D.; Severin, J.; Biggs, P.; Fu, J.; Nefedov, M.; De Jong, P. J.; Stewart, A. F.; Bradley, A. (2011). "A conditional knockout resource for the genome-wide study of mouse gene function". Nature. 474 (7351): 337–342. doi:10.1038/nature10163. PMC 3572410. PMID 21677750.
10. Dolgin E (June 2011). "Mouse library set to be knockout". Nature. 474 (7351): 262–3. doi:10.1038/474262a. PMID 21677718.
11. Collins FS, Rossant J, Wurst W (January 2007). "A mouse for all reasons". Cell. 128 (1): 9–13. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2006.12.018. PMID 17218247.
12. van der Weyden L, White JK, Adams DJ, Logan DW (2011). "The mouse genetics toolkit: revealing function and mechanism.". Genome Biol. 12 (6): 224. doi:10.1186/gb-2011-12-6-224. PMC 3218837. PMID 21722353.