title: The human ubiquitin C promoter drives selective expression in principal neurons in the brain of a transgenic mouse line.
abstract: The specificity of promoters used to drive the expression of proteins of interest is a crucial determinant of transgenesis. Numerous strategies have been developed to restrict expression on a certain cell population. On the other hand it has also remained challenging to obtain ubiquitous expression of transgenes which is needed for example to generate recombination reporter mice or to induce expression by recombination mediated excision of STOP-cassettes. We have generated transgenic mice with the expression of nuclear β-galactosidase driven by the human ubiquitin C promoter thought to mediate ubiquitous expression. However, in the brains of these transgenic mice the expression of the transgene was strikingly limited to principal neurons, while no expression was detected in interneurons or glial cells. These results indicate that the human ubiquitin C promoter might be useful to selectively target projections neurons of the brain.
authors.affiliation: Carl-Ludwig-Institute for Physiology and Interdisciplinary Centre for Clinical Research (IZKF) Leipzig, Faculty of Medicine, University of Leipzig, Liebigstr. 21, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wilhelm
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Winkler
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morawski
authors.forename: Carsten
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jäger
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Reinecke
authors.forename: Moritz J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Rossner
authors.forename: Petra G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Hirrlinger
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hirrlinger
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000235:genetics*; D017930:Genes, Reporter / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007763:Lac Operon / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D008967:Molecular Biology / Q000379:methods; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism; D056347:Neuroanatomical Tract-Tracing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D056325:Neuronal Tract-Tracers / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D014162:Transfection / Q000379:methods; D019076:Transgenes / Q000502:physiology; D025822:Ubiquitin C / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D054875:Ubiquitination / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D056325:Neuronal Tract-Tracers; D025822:Ubiquitin C