title: Outer hair cell-specific prestin-CreERT2 knockin mouse lines.
abstract: Outer hair cells (OHCs) in the cochlea are crucial for the remarkable hearing sensitivity and frequency tuning. To understand OHC physiology and pathology, it is imperative to use mouse genetic tools to manipulate gene expression specifically in OHCs. Here, we generated two prestin knockin mouse lines: (1) the prestin-CreERT2 line, with an internal ribosome entry site-CreERT2-FRT-Neo-FRT cassette inserted into the prestin locus after the stop codon, and (2) the prestin-CreERT2-NN line, with the FRT-Neo-FRT removed subsequently. We characterized the inducible Cre activity of both lines by crossing them with the reporter lines CAG-eGFP and Ai6. Cre activity was induced with tamoxifen at various postnatal ages and only detected in OHCs, resembling the endogenous prestin expression pattern. Moreover, prestin-CreERT2+/-(heterozygotes) and +/+(homozygotes) as well as prestin-CreERT2-NN+/-mice displayed normal hearing. These two prestin-CreERT2 mouse lines are therefore useful tools to analyze gene function in OHCs in vivo.
authors.affiliation: Department of Developmental Neurobiology, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee 38105, USA.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Wen-Cheng
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Tetsuji
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamashita
authors.forename: Jiangang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.forename: Min-Sheng
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zuo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002460:Cell Line; D003051:Cochlea / Q000378:metabolism; D003434:Crossing Over, Genetic; D056426:Genetic Loci; D018072:Hair Cells, Auditory, Outer / Q000201:enzymology*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D019426:Integrases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D020409:Molecular Motor Proteins; C498720:Pres protein, mouse; D013629:Tamoxifen; C045073:Cre recombinase; D019426:Integrases