Dual reporter approaches for identification of Cre efficacy and astrocyte heterogeneity

Gene inactivation reporters are powerful tools to circumvent limitations of the widely used Cre/loxP system of conditional mutagenesis. With new conditional transgenic mouse lines expressing the enhanced cyan fluorescent protein (ECFP) instead of connexin43 (Cx43) after Cre-mediated recombination, we demonstrate dual reporter approaches to simultaneously examine astrocyte subpopulations expressing different connexins, identify compensatory up-regulation within gene families, and quantify Cre-mediated deletion at the allelic level. Analysis of a newly generated Cx43 knock-in ECFP mouse revealed an unexpected heterogeneity of Cx43-expressing astrocytes across brain areas.-Degen, J., Dublin, P., Zhang, J., Dobrowolski, R., Jokwitz, M., Karram, K., Trotter, J., Jabs, R., Willecke, K., Steinh user, C., Theis, M. Dual reporter approaches for identification of Cre efficacy and astrocyte heterogeneity. FASEB J. 26, 4576-4583 (2012). www.fasebj.org