| First Author | Hirrlinger J | Year | 2009 |
| Journal | PLoS One | Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | e4286 |
| PubMed ID | 19172189 | Mgi Jnum | J:144851 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:3832034 | Doi | 10.1371/journal.pone.0004286 |
| Citation | Hirrlinger J, et al. (2009) Split-cre complementation indicates coincident activity of different genes in vivo. PLoS One 4(1):e4286 |
| abstractText | Cre/LoxP recombination is the gold standard for conditional gene regulation in mice in vivo. However, promoters driving the expression of Cre recombinase are often active in a wide range of cell types and therefore unsuited to target more specific subsets of cells. To overcome this limitation, we designed inactive 'split-Cre' fragments that regain Cre activity when overlapping co-expression is controlled by two different promoters. Using transgenic mice and virus-mediated expression of split-Cre, we show that efficient reporter gene activation is achieved in vivo. In the brain of transgenic mice, we genetically defined a subgroup of glial progenitor cells in which the Plp1- and the Gfap-promoter are simultaneously active, giving rise to both astrocytes and NG2-positive glia. Similarly, a subset of interneurons was labelled after viral transfection using Gad67- and Cck1 promoters to express split-Cre. Thus, split-Cre mediated genomic recombination constitutes a powerful spatial and temporal coincidence detector for in vivo targeting. |
