Aydin Iraz T, Beermann Friedrich
Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), School of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
Genesis. 2011 May;49(5):403-9. doi: 10.1002/dvg.20725.
The number of transgenic mouse lines expressing Cre in either type of pigment cells (melanocytes and retinal pigment epithelium, RPE) is limited, and the available lines do not always offer sufficient specificity. In this study, we addressed this issue and we report on the generation of a MART-1::Cre BAC transgenic mouse line, in which the expression of Cre recombinase is controlled by regulatory elements of the pigment cell-specific gene MART-1 (mlana). When MART-1::Cre BAC transgenic mice were bred with the ROSA26-R reporter line, ß-galactosidase expression was observed in RPE from E12.5 onwards, and in melanocyte precursors from E17.5, indicating that the MART-1::Cre line provides Cre recombinase activity in pigment-producing cells rather than in a particular lineage. In addition, breeding of this mouse line to mice carrying a conditional allele of RBP-Jκ corroborated the reported phenotypes in both pigment cell lineages, inducing hair greying and microphthalmia. Our results thus suggest, that the MART-1::Cre line may serve as a novel and useful tool for functional studies in melanocytes and the RPE.genesis 49:403-409, 2011.
在两种色素细胞（黑素细胞和视网膜色素上皮细胞，即RPE）中表达Cre的转基因小鼠品系数量有限，而且现有的品系并不总是具有足够的特异性。在本研究中，我们解决了这个问题，并报告了一种MART-1::Cre BAC转基因小鼠品系的产生，其中Cre重组酶的表达由色素细胞特异性基因MART-1（mlana）的调控元件控制。当将MART-1::Cre BAC转基因小鼠与ROSA26-R报告品系杂交时，从胚胎第12.5天开始在RPE中观察到β-半乳糖苷酶表达，从胚胎第17.5天开始在黑素细胞前体中观察到该表达，这表明MART-1::Cre品系在色素生成细胞而非特定谱系中提供Cre重组酶活性。此外，将该小鼠品系与携带RBP-Jκ条件等位基因的小鼠杂交，证实了在两个色素细胞谱系中均出现了已报道的表型，即导致毛发变白和小眼症。因此，我们的结果表明，MART-1::Cre品系可能作为一种用于黑素细胞和RPE功能研究的新型有用工具。《基因》49:403 - 409，2011年。
