Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lin, Tzi‐Yang
• Taniguchi‐Sugiura, Yuka
• Murawala, Prayag
• Hermann, Sarah
• Tanaka, Elly M.

Titel

Inducible and tissue‐specific cell labeling in Cre‐ERT2 transgenic Xenopus lines

Ist Teil von

• Development, growth & differentiation, 2022-06, Vol.64 (5), p.243-253

Ort / Verlag

Higashihiroshima: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc

Erscheinungsjahr

2022

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Wiley Online Library

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Investigating cell lineage requires genetic tools that label cells in a temporal and tissue‐specific manner. The bacteriophage‐derived Cre‐ERT2/loxP system has been developed as a genetic tool for lineage tracing in many organisms. We recently reported a stable transgenic Xenopus line with a Cre‐ERT2/loxP system driven by the mouse Prrx1 (mPrrx1) enhancer to trace limb fibroblasts during the regeneration process (Prrx1:CreER line). Here we describe the detailed technological development and characterization of such line. Transgenic lines carrying a CAG promoter‐driven Cre‐ERT2/loxP system showed conditional labeling of muscle, epidermal, and interstitial cells in both the tadpole tail and the froglet leg upon 4‐hydroxytamoxifen (4OHT) treatment. We further improved the labeling efficiency in the Prrx1:CreER lines from 12.0% to 32.9% using the optimized 4OHT treatment regime. Careful histological examination showed that Prrx1:CreER lines also sparsely labeled cells in the brain, spinal cord, head dermis, and fibroblasts in the tail. This work provides the first demonstration of conditional, tissue‐specific cell labeling with the Cre‐ERT2/loxP system in stable transgenic Xenopus lines. Establishing Cre‐ERT2 stable transgenic lines to achieve 4OHT‐inducible tissue‐specific cell labeling in Xenopus laevis. The CAG promoter was used to show that inducible cell labeling could be achieved as stable transgenic lines. Using the same transgenesis principle, we established the mPrrx1:CreER transgenic lines to label limb connective tissue cells. The labeling efficiency and specificity were discussed in detail.