A Novel Reporter Rat Strain That Conditionally Expresses the Bright Red Fluorescent Protein tdTomato

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 pre...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-05, Vol.11 (5), p.e0155687-e0155687
Main Authors: Igarashi, Hiroyuki, Koizumi, Kyo, Kaneko, Ryosuke, Ikeda, Keiko, Egawa, Ryo, Yanagawa, Yuchio, Muramatsu, Shin-Ichi, Onimaru, Hiroshi, Ishizuka, Toru, Yawo, Hiromu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal models
Animal tissues
Animals
Artificial chromosomes
Biology and Life Sciences
Brain research
Cell Lineage
Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial
Cloning
Cre recombinase
Dependovirus
Developmental biology
Electroporation
Erythrocytes - cytology
Female
Fertilization
Fibroblasts - metabolism
Fluorescence
Gene expression
Genes, Reporter
Genetic engineering
Genomes
Hippocampus - metabolism
Imaging, Three-Dimensional
Integrases
Life sciences
Luminescent Proteins - genetics
Macrophages - metabolism
Male
Medicine
mRNA
Neurosciences
Ova
Pharmacology
Physiological aspects
Physiology
Proteins
Rats
Rats, Transgenic
Recombinase
Recombination
Red Fluorescent Protein
Research and Analysis Methods
RNA, Messenger - metabolism
Rodents
Social Sciences
Transgenes
Transplantation
University graduates
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Summary: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.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0155687