Maternal inheritance of Cre activity in a Sox2Cre deleter strain

Summary: The Sox2 gene is expressed in several undifferentiated cell types. In an earlier study we described a Sox2Cre transgene that mediates epiblast‐specific Cre‐mediated modification of gene activity in the embryo. Here we report that this transgene is active in the female germline. Consequently, all offspring that arise from female mice heterozygous for the Sox2Cre transgene have demonstrable Cre activity irrespective of whether they inherit the transgene itself. Maternal inheritance of Cre activity allows the efficient modification of gene activity for functional analysis. genesis 37:51–53, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.

[1]  T. Lints,et al.  Sonic hedgehog induces the differentiation of ventral forebrain neurons: A common signal for ventral patterning within the neural tube , 1995, Cell.

[2]  A. McMahon,et al.  Genetic manipulation of hedgehog signaling in the endochondral skeleton reveals a direct role in the regulation of chondrocyte proliferation. , 2001, Development.

[3]  M. Keck,et al.  Genetically engineered mice for studies of stress-related clinical conditions. , 2002, Journal of psychiatric research.

[4]  Philippe Soriano.  Generalized lacZ expression with the ROSA26 Cre reporter strain , 1999, Nature Genetics.

[5]  S. Riminton.  GENE TARGETING TECHNOLOGY AND ADVANCES IN THE PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF INFLAMMATION , 2002, Pathology.

[6]  A. McMahon,et al.  Efficient gene modulation in mouse epiblast using a Sox2Cre transgenic mouse strain. , 2002, Gene expression patterns : GEP.

[7]  Andras Nagy,et al.  Cre recombinase: The universal reagent for genome tailoring , 2000, Genesis.

[8]  A. McMahon,et al.  Mouse Wnt genes exhibit discrete domains of expression in the early embryonic CNS and limb buds. , 1993, Development.

[9]  Andrew P. McMahon,et al.  Smoothened Mutants Reveal Redundant Roles for Shh and Ihh Signaling Including Regulation of L/R Asymmetry by the Mouse Node , 2001, Cell.

[10]  Shi Tang,et al.  A cre/loxP‐deleter transgenic line in mouse strain 129S1/SvImJ , 2002, Genesis.

[11]  R. Krumlauf,et al.  Multiple spatially specific enhancers are required to reconstruct the pattern of Hox-2.6 gene expression. , 1991, Genes & development.

[12]  P. Ingham,et al.  Hedgehog signaling in animal development: paradigms and principles. , 2001, Genes & development.