title: Genetic Tools to Study T Cell Development.
abstract: Genetics tools, and especially the ability to enforce, by transgenesis, or disrupt, by homologous recombination, gene expression in a cell-specific manner, have revolutionized the study of immunology and propelled the laboratory mouse as the main model to study immune responses. Perhaps more than any other aspect of immunology, the study of T cell development has benefited from these technologies. This brief chapter summarizes genetic tools specific to T cell development studies, focusing on mouse strains with lineage- and stage-specific expression of the Cre recombinase, or expressing unique antigen receptor specificities. It ends with a broader discussion of strategies to enforce ectopic lineage and stage-specific gene expression.
authors: Laboratory of Immune Cell Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors: Thomas
authors: T
authors: Ciucci
authors: Melanie S
authors: MS
authors: Vacchio
authors: Rémy
authors: R
authors: Bosselut
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation / Q000235:genetics*; D019070:Cell Lineage / Q000235:genetics; D060966:Clonal Selection, Antigen-Mediated / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell / Q000378:metabolism; D037182:T-Cell Antigen Receptor Specificity / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D011948:Receptors, Antigen, T-Cell