FIGURE 1.

RGS7^−/− mice have a lower body weight. A, partial map of the mouse RGS7 gene, targeted exons, and the targeting construct containing negative and positive selection markers in DTA and NEO, respectively. Upon homologous recombination, exons 6–8 are replaced with the NEO marker, whereas the DTA markers are concurrently lost. Restriction enzyme sites in parentheses are present in the backbone pDND7-F vector and were introduced by PCR during the amplification of homology arms. B and C, Western blotting analysis of protein extracts derived from retina (20 μg, B) and cerebellum (10 μg, C) in littermate wild-type (+/+), heterozygous (+/−), and homozygous (−/−) RGS7 knock-out mice using anti-RGS6/7 (H-190, 1:2,000) antibody indicates the complete loss of RGS7 in RGS7^−/− mice. Anti-GAPDH (1:50,000) serves as loading control. Asterisk denotes RGS6 signal picked up by the H-190 antibody. D, weights of RGS7^+/+ (WT, n = 4), RGS7^+/− (HET, n = 6), and RGS7^−/− (KO, n = 4) mice recorded from P1 to P23 at 2-day intervals, showing that KO mice have an early noticeable smaller body weight (p < 0.01, P3–P23) compared with those of WT and HET littermates.