Generation of mice harboring a Sox5 conditional null allele

✍ Scribed by Peter Dy; Yu Han; Véronique Lefebvre

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 376 KB
• Volume: 46
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1526-954X
• DOI: 10.1002/dvg.20392

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Sox5 belongs to the Sry‐related HMG box gene family, which encodes transcription factors controlling cell fate and differentiation in many lineages. Sox5 produces a long L‐Sox5 protein in neuronal, glial, neural crest, cartilage, and other cells, and a short Sox5 protein in spermatids. Sox5^−/−^ mice have revealed essential roles for L‐Sox5 in development but their neonatal death has prevented postnatal studies. We show here that we have generated mice harboring a conditional null allele for L‐Sox5 (Sox5^fl+^) by flanking the fifth coding exon with loxP sites. Cre recombinase‐mediated conversion of Sox5^fl+^ into Sox5^fl−^ abolishes L‐Sox5 expression. Expectedly, Sox5^fl+/fl+^ mice are indistinguishable from wildtype mice, and Sox5^fl−/fl−^ mice from Sox5^−/−^ mice. Moreover, the chondrodysplasia of Sox5^fl+/fl+^Sox6^fl+/fl+^Prx1Cre mice demonstrates that the two redundant chondrogenic Sox genes can be efficiently inactivated in a cell type‐specific manner. This Sox5 conditional null allele will be valuable in further uncovering the in vivo roles of L‐Sox5. genesis 46:294–299, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.