ABSTRACT
The crinkled mutation arose in 1948 at the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh, Scotland, in the progeny of a male mouse treated with nitrogen mustard. A variety of external features can be easily seen within the first 10 days of life to distinguish crinkled homozygous (cr/cr) from littermate controls. Starting at birth, the skin of mutant mice appears to be thinner than controls (due to a lack of large hair follicles). Corneal opacities and ulcerations develop in most crinkled mice by 6 months of age and possibly all by 1 year of age. Hair follicle development in utero differs from normal littermate controls. Control embryos form follicles at 14 days of gestation, which continue to develop until 3 days post partum. Scanning electron microscopy of 6-day-old crinkled skin indicated it had a smooth surface with no evidence of hair growth, compared to normal or dietary-supplemented crinkled mice where there was hair growth and a rough epidermis.
