Enrichment of Cells Exhibiting Tetracycline Regulated Gene Expression

Tetracycline controlled gene expression varies significantly among cells within a cell line. Chromosomal integration sites of the tetracycline transactivator (tTA) gene and/or the test gene presumably account for the variable efficacy of this system. We hypothesized that the efficacy of tetracycline regulated gene expression is more dependent on the level of tTA inside cells and less dependent on the integration sites of the tetracycline transcription units. To test this hypothesis, we established a TetOff regulated expression of a short-lived enhanced GFP (d2EGFP) via retroviral vectors in a neuroblastoma cell line (NBP2). We then enriched for two populations of NBP2 cells; one expressing high levels of d2EGFP (HG) and the other expressing low levels of d2EGFP (LG) in the absence of doxycycline. We show that the tTA is more abundant in HG cells than in LG cells; the cAMP-mediated transactivation of tTA’s promoter further increases the efficacy of the tetracycline system; and the efficient doxycycline regulated expression of a test gene (i.e., VP16CREB) is achieved in HG cells. Therefore, we have developed a simple method to enrich for a population of tetracycline-responsive cells with no need for screening for tetracycline-responsive clonal cell lines.