Transgenic Cre expression mice for generation of erythroid-specific gene alterations

✍ Scribed by Kenneth R. Peterson; Halyna Fedosyuk; Lesya Zelenchuk; Betty Nakamoto; Evangelia Yannaki; George Stamatoyannopoulos; Steven Ciciotte; Luanne L. Peters; Linda M. Scott; Thalia Papayannopoulou

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 659 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1526-954X
• DOI: 10.1002/gene.20020

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Summary: Transgenic mice that express Cre recombinase in erythroid cell lineages were developed so that genes affecting erythropoiesis/hematopoiesis may be altered without necessarily affecting fetus viability. A micro‐LCR cassette‐β‐globin promoter‐Cre recombinase gene (μLCR‐βpr‐Cre) construct was synthesized and used to generate transgenic mice. Concurrently, we produced mice containing a μLCR‐loxP‐flanked β sickle gene (μLCR‐loxP‐β^S^‐loxP) construct. μLCR‐βpr‐Cre mice with intact transgenes in variable copy number were identified. Cre expression was assessed by RNAse protection and RT‐PCR. Cre function was ascertained by breeding to μLCR‐loxP‐β^S^‐loxP mice. We demonstrate that β^S^ expression was not detected in the blood of bigenics, but the gene was present in nonerythroid cells. Thus, excision of the loxP‐flanked β^S^ gene was restricted to erythroid cell lineages. genesis 39:1–9, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.