New variants of inducible Cre recombinase: a novel mutant of Cre-PR fusion protein exhibits enhanced sensitivity and an expanded range of inducibility

We have developed a novel inducible Cre mutant with enhanced recombinase activity to mediate genetic switching events. The protein, designated Cre*PR, is composed of a new Cre mutant at the N-terminus followed by the ligand-binding domain (LBD) of the progesterone receptor (PR). The response to low doses of inducer is significantly enhanced by elon- gating the C-terminus of the PR LBD from amino acid 891 to 914. The mutant Cre lacks the first 18 amino acids and contains a Val→Ala substitution at position 336, thereby destroying a cryptic splice donor at the 3'-end of Cre. The latter mutation reduces unwanted background recombinase activity in the absence of the synthetic ligand RU486 by a factor of at least 10 to an almost undetectable level. Thus, the recombi- nase activity turns out to be inducible by a factor of >200. We expect Cre*PR to serve as a valuable tool for conditional expression of genes both in vitro and in vivo.