title: A transgenic mouse that reveals cell shape and arrangement during ureteric bud branching.
abstract: Understanding the cellular events that underlie epithelial morphogenesis is a key problem in developmental biology. Here, we describe a new transgenic mouse line that makes it possible to visualize individual cells specifically in the Wolffian duct and ureteric bud, the epithelial structures that give rise to the collecting system of the kidney. myr-Venus, a membrane-associated form of the fluorescent protein Venus, was expressed in the ureteric bud lineage under the control of the Hoxb7 promoter. In Hoxb7/myr-Venus mice, the outlines of all Wolffian duct and ureteric bud epithelial cells are strongly labeled at all stages of urogenital development, allowing the shapes and arrangements of individual cells to be readily observed by confocal microscopy of freshly excised or cultured kidneys. This strain should be extremely useful for studies of cell behavior during ureteric bud branching morphogenesis in wild type and mutant mouse lines.
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetics and Development, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, New York 10032, USA.
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chi
authors.forename: Anna-Katerina
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Hadjantonakis
authors.forename: Zaiqi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Deborah
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hyink
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Costantini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D001483:Base Sequence; D048430:Cell Shape; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D015870:Gene Expression; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D051379:Mice; D008808:Mice, Inbred CBA; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014513:Ureter / Q000166:cytology / Q000196:embryology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D017931:DNA Primers; D018398:Homeodomain Proteins; C093253:Hoxb7 protein, mouse; D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D011993:Recombinant Fusion Proteins; C054562:yellow fluorescent protein, Bacteria