| First Author | Drayson LE | Year | 2019 |
| Journal | Genesis | Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 9 | Pages | e23305 |
| PubMed ID | 31087513 | Mgi Jnum | J:283825 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6385937 | Doi | 10.1002/dvg.23305 |
| Citation | Drayson LE, et al. (2019) A Chrnb3-Cre BAC transgenic mouse line for manipulation of gene expression in retinal ganglion cells. Genesis 57(9):e23305 |
| abstractText | The mechanisms by which retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) make specific connections during development is an intense area of research and have served as a model for understanding the general principles of circuit wiring. As such, genetic tools allowing for specific recombination in RGCs are critical to further our understanding of the cell-specific roles of different genes during these processes. However, many RGC-specific Cre lines have drawbacks, due to their broad expression in other cell types and/or retinorecipient regions or lack of expression in broad swaths of the retina. Here, we characterize a Cre BAC transgenic line driven by elements of the cholinergic receptor nicotinic beta 3 subunit (Chrnb3). We show that Cre expression is restricted to RGCs in the retina and sparsely expressed in the brain, importantly excluding retinorecipient regions. Furthermore, Chrnb3-Cre mice label a wide variety of RGCs distributed throughout the retina and Cre activity is detected embryonically, shortly following RGC differentiation. Finally, we find that Chrnb3-Cre-labeled RGCs innervate multiple retinorecipient areas that serve both image-forming and nonimage forming functions. Thus, this genetic tool will be of broad use to investigators studying the RGC-specific contributions of genes to visual circuit development. |
