title: R26-WntVis reporter mice showing graded response to Wnt signal levels.
abstract: The canonical Wnt signaling pathway plays a major role in the regulation of embryogenesis and organogenesis, where signal strength-dependent cellular responses are of particular importance. To assess Wnt signal levels in individual cells, and to circumvent the integration site-dependent bias shown in previous Wnt reporter lines, we constructed a new Wnt signal reporter mouse line R26-WntVis. Heptameric TCF/LEF1 binding sequences were combined with a viral minimal promoter to confer a graded response to the reporter depending on Wnt signal strengths. The histone H2B-EGFP fusion protein was chosen as the fluorescent reporter to facilitate single-cell resolution analyses. This WntVis reporter gene was then inserted into the ROSA26 locus in an orientation opposite to that of the endogenous gene. The R26-WntVis allele was introduced into Wnt3a(-/-) and Wnt3a(vt/-) mutant mouse embryos and compared with wild-type embryos to assess its performance. The R26-WntVis reporter was activated in known Wnt-dependent tissues and responded in a graded fashion to signal intensity. This analysis also indicated that the major Wnt activity early in embryogenesis switched from Wnt3 to Wnt3a around E7.5. The R26-WntVis mouse line will be widely useful for the study of Wnt signal-dependent processes.
authors.affiliation: Fujii Memorial Institute of Medical Sciences, Tokushima University, 3-18-15 Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima, 770-8503, Japan.|Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.
authors.forename: Tatsuya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Takemoto
authors.affiliation: Genetic Engineering Team, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima Minami-machi, Chuou-ku, Kobe, 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Takaya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.affiliation: Genetic Engineering Team, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima Minami-machi, Chuou-ku, Kobe, 650-0047, Japan.|Animal Resource Development Unit, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima Minami-machi, Chuou-ku, Kobe, 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kiyonari
authors.affiliation: Animal Resource Development Unit, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima Minami-machi, Chuou-ku, Kobe, 650-0047, Japan.|Laboratory of Animal Resources, Center for Disease Biology and Integrative Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazuki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakao
authors.affiliation: Genetic Engineering Team, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima Minami-machi, Chuou-ku, Kobe, 650-0047, Japan.|Animal Resource Development Unit, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima Minami-machi, Chuou-ku, Kobe, 650-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Yasuhide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Furuta
authors.affiliation: Fujii Memorial Institute of Medical Sciences, Tokushima University, 3-18-15 Kuramoto-cho, Tokushima, 770-8503, Japan.
authors.forename: Hitomi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.affiliation: Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8787, Japan.
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takada
authors.affiliation: Genetic Engineering Team, RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies, 2-2-3 Minatojima Minami-machi, Chuou-ku, Kobe, 650-0047, Japan.|Division of Embryology, National Institute for Basic Biology (NIBB), Okazaki, Aichi, 444-8787, Japan.
authors.forename: Toshihiko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fujimori
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences, Osaka University, 1-3 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka, 565-0871, Japan.|Faculty of Life Sciences, Kyoto Sangyo University, Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8555, Japan.
authors.forename: Hisato
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kondoh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004622:Embryo, Mammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D005775:Gastrula / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic / Q000235:genetics*; D051153:Wnt Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D060449:Wnt Signaling Pathway
chemical_list: D051153:Wnt Proteins