Contact: TCF Berlin-Buch Tel. +49-30-9489-2140 Fax. -2141 email jerchow@rcc-berlin.

de

www.rcc.ch


Inducible expression system for mouse transgenesis

In many cases the expression of a transgene is deleterious for the developing or early post
natal organism. It may lead to severe developmental defects or premature death, which can
preclude analysis of post developmental effects of the transgene. If transgenic mice do
complete development, interpretation of the experimental results often runs into two types of
difficulties. First, it is often difficult to exclude the possibility that the abnormal phenotype
observed in adult animals arises indirectly from a developmental defect. Second, expression
of a transgene under the control of a given promoter will in many cases lead to the
expression of the transgene in several cell types, which makes it difficult to attribute
abnormal phenotypes to a particular type of cells or tissues.
In other experimental settings it may be desirable to direct the expression of the transgene
that may for example encode a reporter gene to distinct tissues or organs and specificity may
not be reached by the use of a single promoter.
RCCs inducible expression system offers the possibility to generate transgenic mice that
carry a transgene whose expression is blocked by a STOP cassette. By mating these mice
with strains that express the Cre recombinase the STOP cassette, which is flanked by loxP
sites, is excised, thereby activating expression in a tissue and time specific manner that is
controlled both by the promoter of the transgene and the promoter driving Cre expression.
Thus, a second level of control to transgene activation is added.
A further advantage of the inducible expression system is that because of the availability
of a vast number of different Cre strains it offers the possibility to analyze transgene
expression in several different tissues or organs and at various developmental time points
with only one transgenic line that has to be established.


Promoter Intron STOP cDNA pA
loxP sites
Promoter Intron STOP cDNA pA
loxP sites

The figure shows a schematic representation of a construct used for RCCs inducible
expression system. Promoter and cDNA of interest can be provided by the client or isolated
and subcloned in the specific vector by RCC. An intron has been added to the construct for
increased stability of transgene expression and a STOP cassette flanked by loxP sites is
situated in front of the cDNA of interest.
For further information on our inducible expression system and for your personal
quotation, please contact Dr. Boris Jerchow at RCCs Transgenic Core Facility Berlin-Buch.

TCF Berlin-Buch
Transgenic Core Facility der RCC Gen bio tec GmbH
auf dem biomedizinischen Forschungscampus
Berlin-Buch