Question

Mice lacking plakoglobin have skin defects but usually die from

A) cancer.
B) muscular dystrophy.
C) heart failure.
D) Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
E) scurvy.

Answer 1

Mice that are deficient in plakoglobin typically die due to heart failure, which is caused by compromised cell adhesion within the cardiac muscle.

Step-by-step explanation:

Mice lacking plakoglobin exhibit skin defects and often succumb to heart failure. Plakoglobin is a critical component of the desmosomes and adherens junctions, which are structures important for cell-to-cell adhesion in cardiac and epidermal cells. In its absence, mice develop cardiac muscle defects leading to cardiac dysfunction and heart failure.

While muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder characterized by skeletal muscle weakness and the degeneration of muscle cells and tissues, this is not the usual cause of death in mice lacking plakoglobin. Moreover, conditions like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, cancer, and scurvy relate to defects in connective tissue, DNA repair, and vitamin C deficiency, respectively, and are not the primary reasons for the premature mortality observed in these mice.