A Novel Reporter Rat Strain That Conditionally Expresses the Bright Red Fluorescent Protein tdTomato.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27195805.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0155687 and PMC identifier 4873025.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Despite the strength of the Cre/loxP recombination system in animal models, its application in rats trails that in mice because of the lack of relevant reporter strains. Here, we generated a floxed STOP tdTomato rat that conditionally expresses a red fluorescent protein variant (tdTomato) in the presence of exogenous Cre recombinase. The tdTomato signal vividly visualizes neurons including their projection fibers and spines without any histological enhancement. In addition, a transgenic rat line (FLAME) that ubiquitously expresses tdTomato was successfully established by injecting intracytoplasmic Cre mRNA into fertilized ova. Our rat reporter system will facilitate connectome studies as well as the visualization of the fine structures of genetically identified cells for long periods both in vivo and ex vivo. Furthermore, FLAME is an ideal model for organ transplantation research owing to improved traceability of cells/tissues.
Medical subject headings
- Luminescent Proteins
- Rats, Transgenic