Abstract
[Field of the Invention]
The present invention relates generally to the field of genetics, genomics and molecular biology. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and materials used to isolate, detect and sequence a high bone mass gene and corresponding wild-type gene, and mutants thereof. The present invention also relates to the high bone mass gene, the corresponding wild-type gene, and mutants thereof. The genes identified in the present invention are implicated in the ontology and physiology of bone development. The invention also provides nucleic acids, proteins, cloning vectors, expression vectors, tramformed non-human hosts, methods of developing pharmaceutical compositions, methods of identifying molecules involved in bone development, and methods of diagnosing and manufacturing medicaments for treating diseases involved in bone development. In preferred embodiment, the present invention is directed to methods for manufacturing medicamentss for treating, diagnosing, preventing and screening for normal and abnormal conditions of bone, including metabolic bone diseases such as osteoporosis.