title: Neuron-specific recombination by Cre recombinase inserted into the murine tau locus.
abstract: To determine the neuronal function of genes in vivo, the neuron-specific deletion of a target gene in animals is required. Tau, a microtubule-associated protein, is expressed abundantly in neurons but scarcely in glias and other tissues. Therefore, to generate mice that express Cre recombinase in neurons, we inserted Cre recombinase into the tau locus. By crossing these tau-Cre mice with ROSA26 lacZ reporter mice, we observed Cre recombinase activity in the neurons from most of the central nervous system, but not in glias nor in non-neuronal tissues. This neuronal-specific activity appeared during embryogenesis. We further crossed tau-Cre mice with rab8 'floxed' mice, and showed that the recombination was nearly complete in the brain, but incomplete or non-detectable in other tissues. Thus, tau-Cre knockin mouse is a useful tool for studying the neuronal function of a gene in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Molecular Traffic, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Institute for Molecular and Cellular Regulation, Gunma University, 3-39-15 Showa, Maebashi, Gunma 371-8512, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuhiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Muramatsu
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: Takefumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Uemura
authors.forename: Masataka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kunii
authors.forename: Reiko
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Harada
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sato
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Morikawa
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harada
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D019426:Integrases / Q000235:genetics; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009474:Neurons / Q000378:metabolism*; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000032:analysis / Q000235:genetics; D016875:tau Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D016875:tau Proteins; C045073:Cre recombinase; D019426:Integrases; D001616:beta-Galactosidase