title: Transcriptional regulation of agouti-related protein (Agrp) in transgenic mice.
abstract: Agouti-related protein (Agrp) encodes a hypothalamic neuropeptide that promotes positive energy balance by stimulating food intake and reducing energy expenditure. Agrp expression in the brain is restricted to neurons within the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, and expression levels are elevated as a consequence of food deprivation. We tested a series of bacterial artificial chromosome reporter constructs with varying amounts of sequence flanking the Agrp transcription unit in transgenic mice to identify and refine a region of DNA capable of recapitulating characteristics of Agrp expression. We report that a 42.5-kb region upstream of Agrp, containing three distinct regions that are evolutionarily conserved between mouse and human, is necessary and sufficient to consistently drive reporter expression specifically within AgRP neurons in a fasting-responsive manner. In addition, we demonstrate that this region allows for the stable expression of Cre recombinase in transgenic mice, providing a genetic tool for studying anabolic neural circuits that control energy balance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5323, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Kaelin
authors.forename: Allison Wanting
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Xin-Yun
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Gregory S
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Barsh
mesh_terms: D054369:Agouti-Related Protein; D000818:Animals; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology; D015723:Gene Library; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D019426:Integrases / Q000235:genetics; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D012045:Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D019076:Transgenes / Q000235:genetics; D014764:Viral Proteins / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: C515198:AGRP protein, human; D054369:Agouti-Related Protein; C515199:Agrp protein, mouse; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D011506:Proteins; D014764:Viral Proteins; C045073:Cre recombinase; D019426:Integrases