Abstract
Gene inactivation reporters are powerful tools to circumvent limitations of the widely used Cre/loxP system of conditional mutagenesis. With new conditional transgenic mouse lines expressing the enhanced cyan fluorescent protein (ECFP) instead of connexin43 (Cx43) after Cre-mediated recombination, we demonstrate dual reporter approaches to simultaneously examine astrocyte subpopulations expressing different connexins, identify compensatory up-regulation within gene families, and quantify Cre-mediated deletion at the allelic level. Analysis of a newly generated Cx43 knock-in ECFP mouse revealed an unexpected heterogeneity of Cx43-expressing astrocytes across brain areas.
Publication types
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Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MeSH terms
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Animals
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Astrocytes / cytology
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Astrocytes / metabolism*
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Brain / metabolism
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Connexin 30
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Connexin 43 / genetics*
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Connexin 43 / metabolism
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Connexins / genetics*
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Connexins / metabolism
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Gene Deletion
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Gene Expression Regulation / physiology*
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Genes, Reporter*
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Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein
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Green Fluorescent Proteins
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Integrases / genetics
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Integrases / metabolism*
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Mice
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Mice, Transgenic
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Nerve Tissue Proteins / genetics
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Nerve Tissue Proteins / metabolism
Substances
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Connexin 30
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Connexin 43
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Connexins
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Gjb6 protein, mouse
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Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein
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Nerve Tissue Proteins
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enhanced cyan fluorescent protein
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glial fibrillary astrocytic protein, mouse
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Green Fluorescent Proteins
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Cre recombinase
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Integrases