Figure 1

Generation of deficient mice and their auxological and morphological phenotypes. (a) Strategy to generate Slc26a7^−/− mouse. The gDNA target sequence is located in exon 5; black and orange underlining indicates the target sequence and PAM sequence, respectively. In the mutant allele, one base insertion (red letter) is introduced, resulting in a frame shift. (b) Strategy to generate Slc26a7^del/del mouse. The target sequence is the same as in Slc26a7^−/− mouse, and a 205 bases deletion here causes exon 5 to be skipped when splicing occurs. (c) Strategy to generate Slc26a4^−/− mouse. The target gDNA sequence is located in exon 2. In the mutant allele, one base duplication (red letter) is introduced, resulting in a frame shift. (d) Photographic image of the thyroid gland in male wild type (WT) and Slc26a7^−/− mice at day 90, demonstrating the presence of a goiter in the Slc26a7^−/− mouse. The area surrounded by dotted lines indicates the thyroid gland. (e) Relative weights of the thyroid gland in male WT, Slc26a7^+/−, and Slc26a7^−/− mice at day 90; n = 4–9 mice of each genotype. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed significant differences among the three groups (F (2, 15) = 24.1, p < 0.0001). ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 determined by Tukey’s test. (f) Hematoxylin and eosin-stained thyroid sections from male WT, Slc26a4^−/−, Slc26a7^−/−, and Slc26a7^del/del Slc26a4^−/− mice at day 90. (g,h) Growth curve (g) and body weight at day 90 (h) of male WT, Slc26a4^−/−, Slc26a7^−/−, and Slc26a7^del/del Slc26a4^−/− mice from day 21; n = 5–11 mice of each genotype. One-way ANOVA showed significant differences among the three groups (F (3, 33) = 34.3, p < 0.0001). ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001 determined by Tukey’s test.