Recent innovations in tissue-specific gene modifications in the mouse.
Annotating the functions of individual genes in in vivo contexts has become the primary task of mouse genetics in the post-genome era. In addition to conventional approaches using transgenic technologies and gene targeting, the recent development of conditional gene modification techniques has opened novel opportunities for elucidating gene function at the level of the whole mouse to individual tissues or cell types. Tissue-specific gene modifications in the mouse have been made possible using site-specific DNA recombinases and conditional alleles. Recent innovations in this basic technology have facilitated new types of experiments, revealing novel insights into mammalian embryology. In this review, we focus on these recent innovations and new technical issues that impact the success of these conditional gene modification approaches.
Furuta
Yasuhide
Y
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
Behringer
Richard R
RR
D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D018390:Gene Targeting / Q000379:methods*; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D005818:Genetic Engineering; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic