title: Nrl-Cre transgenic mouse mediates loxP recombination in developing rod photoreceptors.
abstract: The developing mouse retina is a tractable model for studying neurogenesis and differentiation. Although transgenic Cre mouse lines exist to mediate conditional genetic manipulations in developing mouse retinas, none of them act specifically in early developing rods. For conditional genetic manipulations of developing retinas, a Nrl-Cre mouse line in which the Nrl promoter drives expression of Cre in rod precursors was created. The results showed that Nrl-Cre expression was specific to the retina where it drives rod-specific recombination with a temporal pattern similar to endogenous Nrl expression during retinal development. This Nrl-Cre transgene does not negatively impact retinal structure and function. Taken together, the data suggested that the Nrl-Cre mouse line was a valuable tool to drive Cre-mediated recombination specifically in developing rods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri.|Molecular Cell Biology Graduate Program, Division of Biology & Biomedical Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: Diana S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Brightman
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Razafsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: Chloe
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Potter
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hodzic
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri.|Department of Developmental Biology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, Missouri.
authors.forename: Shiming
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D019426:Integrases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D055495:Neurogenesis; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D012160:Retina; D017948:Retinal Rod Photoreceptor Cells / Q000166:cytology*
chemical_list: D050976:Basic-Leucine Zipper Transcription Factors; D005136:Eye Proteins; C084884:Nrl protein, mouse; C045073:Cre recombinase; D019426:Integrases
keywords: differentiation; neuronal development; retina-specific Cre; transgenic