| First Author | Danielian PS | Year | 1998 |
| Journal | Curr Biol | Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 24 | Pages | 1323-6 |
| PubMed ID | 9843687 | Mgi Jnum | J:69326 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:1934457 | Doi | 10.1016/s0960-9822(07)00562-3 |
| Citation | Danielian PS, et al. (1998) Modification of gene activity in mouse embryos in utero by a tamoxifen-inducible form of Cre recombinase. Curr Biol 8(24):1323-6 |
| abstractText | The ability to generate specific genetic modifications in mice provides a powerful approach to assess gene function. When genetic modifications have been generated in the germ line, however, the resulting phenotype often only reflects the first time a gene has an influence on - or is necessary for - a particular biological process. Therefore, systems allowing conditional genetic modification have been developed (for a review, see [1]); for example, inducible forms of the Cre recombinase from P1 phage have been generated that can catalyse intramolecular recombination between target recognition sequences (loxP sites) in response to ligand [2] [3] [4] [5]. Here, we assessed whether a tamoxifen-inducible form of Cre recombinase (Cre-ERTM) could be used to modify gene activity in the mouse embryo in utero. Using the enhancer of the Wnt1 gene to restrict the expression of Cre-ERTM to the embryonic neural tube, we found that a single injection of tamoxifen into pregnant mice induced Cre-mediated recombination within the embryonic central nervous system, thereby activating expression of a reporter gene. Induction was ligand dependent, rapid and efficient. The results demonstrate that tamoxifen-inducible recombination can be used to effectively modify gene function in the mouse embryo. |
