ABSTRACT
Bare-patches is a radiation-induced mutation. Heterozygous females can be identified around 5 days of age by foci of alopecia at the time the first hairs are emerging. Flakes and scabs develop around 8 days of age and persist for weeks in these alopecic foci. The alopecic areas are overlapped by normal hair by 12 days of age. Bare-patches is a semi-dominant, sex-linked, male-lethal gene. Genetic mapping places all mutations at different locations on the X Chromosome, and they are thought to be independent genes. Bare-patches was associated with a high production of XO offspring. The bare-patches mouse mutation has skeletal, ocular, and cutaneous lesions that are similar to the human genetic disease known as chondrodysplasia punctata. The bare-patches mutation has been used as a model to study chondrodysplasia punctata, to study the function and coevolution of the X chromosome, and is utilized as a marker to map the human gene.
