A new regulatory gene in the histidine decarboxylase gene complex determines the responsiveness of the mouse kidney enzyme to testosterone

Abstract

SummaryThe level of histidine decarboxylase in mouse kidney normally differs between the sexes with females higher than males. In a strain derived from feral Danish mice (DAN), however, both males and females have the same, high, HDC activity due to the males being insensitive to repression by testosterone. Genetic analysis indicates that this insensitivity is caused by a variant allele of a new gene in the histidine decarboxylase gene complex,Hdc-a; theHdc-aballele in C57BL/10 confers high sensitivity to testosterone whereas theHdc-awallele in the DAN strain confers low sensitivity. In addition, the DAN strain has a novel haplotype for the other three known elements of [Hdc]: the alleleHdc-sdof the structural gene, theHdc-cdallele of the gene determining enzyme concentration, and the oestrogen-inducible alleleHdc-eb.