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Outer hair cell‐specific prestin‐CreER T2 knockin mouse lines
Author(s) -
Fang Jie,
Zhang WenCheng,
Yamashita Tetsuji,
Gao Jiangang,
Zhu MinSheng,
Zuo Jian
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
genesis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.093
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1526-968X
pISSN - 1526-954X
DOI - 10.1002/dvg.20810
Subject(s) - prestin , cochlea , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , hair cell , gene knockin , motor protein , gene , genetics , neuroscience , microtubule
Outer hair cells (OHCs) in the cochlea are crucial for the remarkable hearing sensitivity and frequency tuning. To understand OHC physiology and pathology, it is imperative to use mouse genetic tools to manipulate gene expression specifically in OHCs. Here, we generated two prestin knockin mouse lines: (1) the prestin‐CreER T2 line, with an internal ribosome entry site‐CreER T2 ‐FRT‐Neo‐FRT cassette inserted into the prestin locus after the stop codon, and (2) the prestin‐CreER T2 ‐NN line, with the FRT‐Neo‐FRT removed subsequently. We characterized the inducible Cre activity of both lines by crossing them with the reporter lines CAG‐eGFP and Ai6. Cre activity was induced with tamoxifen at various postnatal ages and only detected in OHCs, resembling the endogenous prestin expression pattern. Moreover, prestin‐CreER T2 +/− (heterozygotes) and +/+ (homozygotes) as well as prestin‐CreER T2 ‐NN +/− mice displayed normal hearing. These two prestin‐CreER T2 mouse lines are therefore useful tools to analyze gene function in OHCs in vivo. genesis 50:124–131, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.