title: Cre-mediated targeted gene activation in the middle silk glands of transgenic silkworms (Bombyx mori).
abstract: Cre-mediated recombination is widely used to manipulate defined genes spatiotemporally in vivo. The present study evaluated the Cre/loxP system in Bombyx mori by establishing two transgenic lines. One line contained a Cre recombinase gene controlled by a sericin-1 gene (Ser1) promoter. The other line contained a loxP-Stop-loxP-DsRed cassette driven by the same Ser1 promoter. The precise deletion of the Stop fragment was found to be triggered by Cre-mediated site-specific excision, and led to the expression of DsRed fluorescence protein in the middle silk glands of all double-transgenic hybrids. This result was also confirmed by phenotypical analysis. Hence, the current study demonstrated the feasibility of Cre-mediated site-specific recombination in B. mori, and opened a new window for further refining genetic tools in silkworms.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Hanfu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Sanyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Huizhen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Qingyou
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Xia
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D030801:Animals, Genetically Modified; D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D012831:Bombyx / Q000235:genetics*; D005088:Exocrine Glands / Q000502:physiology*; D015870:Gene Expression; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D005854:Germ Cells; D019426:Integrases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D015533:Transcriptional Activation
chemical_list: D008164:Luminescent Proteins; C413663:fluorescent protein 583; C045073:Cre recombinase; D019426:Integrases