Cre expression in primary spermatocytes: A tool for genetic engineering of the germ line

Impaired Embryonic Development in Mice Overexpressing the RNA-Binding Protein TIAR

“…Surprisingly, only 23% and 27.6% of the alpha (n = 13) and beta (n = 29) offspring, respectively, carried the tiar transgene, a percentage significantly lower than the 50% expected for the transmission of a heterozygote transgene. This reduced yield of transgenic descendants was not observed upon mating of the same GFP-TIAR males with Scyp1-Cre transgenic females which do not express the Cre recombinase during oogenesis [13] (Fig. 2).…”

The Fos‐related antigen Fra‐1 is an activator of bone matrix formation

“…Homozygous fra‐1 f/f mice showed no overt phenotype, suggesting that the genetic manipulation of the fra‐1 alleles did not interfere with gene functions. Heterozygous fra‐1 +/− mice with a germline deletion of the floxed fra‐1 allele were generated using the SycP1‐ cre deleter mouse (Vidal et al , 1998). Intercrossing these mice gave no viable fra‐1 −/− offsprings at birth (data not shown), indicating that germline deletion of both fra‐1 alleles causes embryonic lethality as recently described (Schreiber et al , 2000).…”

Characterization of a Dazl‐GFP germ cell‐specific reporter

“…Recent studies have characterized germ cell reporter transgenic mice containing Oct -4 (Yeom et al , 1996; Yoshimizu et al , 1999), Blimp -1 (Ohinata et al , 2005), Fragilis (Tanaka et al , 2004), Stella (Payer et al , 2006), Tnap (MacGregor et al , 1995), Vasa (Gallardo et al , 2007), Stra -8 (Nayernia et al , 2004), Scp -1 (Vidal et al , 1998), Alf (Han et al , 2004), Gdf -9, Zp -3, Msx -2 (Lan et al , 2004), Acrosin (Nayernia et al , 1992), and Protamine (Zambrowicz et al , 1993) reporters, and mouse ESC-derived germ cell populations utilizing Oct -4 (Hubner et al , 2003), Stella (Payer et al , 2006), Vasa (Toyooka et al , 2003), Stra -8 and Protamine -1 (Nayernia et al , 2006) reporters. However, these reporters have limitations in that they may be expressed in somatic and germ cells, may be sex-specific, and/or may be limited in expression to brief stages of germ cell development.…”