Genomic structure of the mouse Ap3b1 gene in normal and pearl mice

The mouse hypopigmentation mutant pearl is an established model for Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS), a genetically heterogenous disease with misregulation of the biogenesis/function of melanosomes, lysosomes, and platelet dense granules. The pearl (Ap3b1) gene encodes the beta3A subunit of the AP-3 adaptor complex, which regulates vesicular trafficking. The genomic structure of the normal Ap3b1 gene includes 25 introns and a putative promoter sequence. The original pearl (pe) mutation, which has an unusually high reversion rate on certain strain backgrounds, has been postulated to be caused by insertion of a transposable element. Indeed, the mutation contains a 215-bp partial mouse transposon at the junction point of a large tandem genomic duplication of 6 exons and associated introns. At the cDNA level, three pearl mutations (pearl, pearl-8J, and pearl-9J) are caused by deletions or duplications of a complete exon(s).