Conditional gene expression systems in the transgenic rat brain

BMC Biology

Methodology Article

Kai Schönig¹  Ariana Frömmig¹  Brigitte Pesold¹  Dusan Bartsch¹  Lena Wendler¹  Tillmann Weber²  Dominik Djandji³  Hermann Bujard⁴ 

[1] Department of Molecular Biology, Central Institute of Mental Health and Heidelberg University, Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany;Department of Molecular Biology, Central Institute of Mental Health and Heidelberg University, Medical Faculty Mannheim, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany;Department of Addictive Behavior and Addiction Medicine, Central Institute of Mental Health, Heidelberg University, J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany;German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Molecular Immunology, Im Neuenheimer Feld 580, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany;Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 282, 69120, Heidelberg, Germany;

关键词: CaMKIIα;    conditional expression;    Cre/loxP;    rat model;    Tet system;    transgenic rat;    tTA;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1741-7007-10-77

 received in 2012-06-19, accepted in 2012-09-03,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundTurning gene expression on and off at will is one of the most powerful tools for the study of gene function in vivo. While several conditional systems were successful in invertebrates, in mice the Cre/loxP recombination system and the tet-controlled transcription activation system are predominant. Both expression systems allow for spatial and temporal control of gene activities, and, in the case of tet regulation, even for the reversible activation/inactivation of gene expression. Although the rat is the principal experimental model in biomedical research, in particular in studies of neuroscience, conditional rat transgenic systems are exceptionally rare in this species.ResultsWe addressed this lack of technology, and established and thoroughly characterized CreERT2 and tTA transgenic rats with forebrain-specific transgene expression, controlled by the CaMKII alpha promoter. In addition, we developed new universal rat reporter lines for both transcription control systems and established inducible and efficient reporter gene expression in forebrain neurons.ConclusionsWe demonstrate that conditional genetic manipulations in the rat brain are both feasible and practicable and outline advantages and limitations of the Tet and Cre/loxP system in the rat brain.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Schönig et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.