Expression of the murine homologue of FMR2 in mouse brain and during development

The expression of the FRAXE fragile site on the human X chromosome is associated with the expansion of a CCG repeat at the 5' end of the FMR2 gene. The repeat expansion results in transcriptional silencing of the gene and this event has been found to be associated with mild mental handicap in families. We have previously shown that the gene is particularly abundantly expressed in the hippocampus and amygdala by northern analysis. Here we demonstrate the expression pattern of the homologous gene in adult mouse brain and early mouse embryos. High levels of fmr2 mRNA were noted in the hippocampus, the piriform cortex, Purkinje cells and the cingulate gyrus. Expression of fmr2 occurs on, or before, day 7 in the embryo and reaches its highest levels at 10.5-11.5 days, A more detailed analysis shows that the fmr2 expression in the embryo at 11 days is more specific and evident to the roof of the hind brain and the lateral ventricle of the brain. The coding sequence of the mouse fmr2 gene shows very high conservation with 88% amino acid identity to the human FMR2 sequence.