Depilated is an autosomal recessive mutation that was mapped to Chromosome 4. It arose spontaneously in 1966 at The Jackson Laboratory. Mutant mice can be identified as early as 1 week of age when hairs first emerge from follicles by mice having an abnormally thin, short first hair coat. Some mice will be nearly completely hairless by 3 weeks of age but if hair is present it appears to be matted and greasy. Plucked hairs have irregular septae or complete interruption of the normal septal pattern. The melanocytes had normal morphologic features without melanosome clumping. In histologic sections there were various degrees of follicular dystrophy. Detailed studies on anatomic changes have yet to be done.
References
Green MC, New mutant: a new recessive mutation, depilated (dep), arose in our T tf/+ tf stock in 1966., Mouse News Lett 1970;43():31
Mayer TC; Kleiman NJ; Green MC, Depilated (dep), a mutant gene that affects the coat of the mouse and acts in the epidermis., Genetics 1976 Sep;84(1):59-65
Sundberg JP, Orlow SJ, The Depilated (dep) Mutation, Chromosome 4, In: Handbook of Mouse Mutations with Skin and Hair Abnormalities: Animal Models and Biomedical Tools. Sundberg, JP (ed.), CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, pp 235-240, 1994.
Sundberg JP; Sundberg BA; Beamer WG, Comparison of chemical carcinogen skin tumor induction efficacy in inbred, mutant, and hybrid strains of mice: Morphologic variations of induced tumors and absence of a papillomavirus cocarcinogen., Mol Carcinog 1997 SEP;20(1):19-32