Cre Portal

The JAX Cre Repository's aim is to provide the scientific community with a centralized, comprehensive set of well-characterized Cre Driver lines and related information resources. Available strains include Cre expressing strains, inducible Cre strains, Cre reporter strains, and loxP-flanked (floxed) strains.

Our extensive characterization data is available through www.creportal.org.

How to cite this resource 

The Cre Repository is supported by the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs/Office of the Director grant number OD011190 of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Please reference this grant in citations acknowledging use of the resource. 

Characterization protocols 

The JAX Cre Repository uses a lacZ Cre-reporter strain, B6.129S4-Gt(ROSA)26Sortm1Sor/J, to assess cre activity. β-Galactosidase staining of 10.5 dpc embryos is done in whole mount. Because of tissue size, 15.5 dpc embryos, postnatal day 7 pups, and 8 week old adult mice are cryo-sectioned prior to staining of frozen sections

Available cre lines and cre reporters

The Jackson Laboratory offers over 300 cre tool strains. Listed by promoter, including site of expression:

            Cre Recombinase Expression

            Cre-Recombinase Expression: Germline/Embryonic Expression

            Cre-Recombinase Expression: Inducible          

Cre Reporter Strains

Cre Reporter strains allow the user to assess the function (degree of excision) of an individual Cre line. These strains are engineered to express a reporter gene (such as lacZ or GFP) following the removal of a loxP-flanked STOP cassette, thus marking cell lineages that can be targeted with a given Cre line. Some lines also express a distinct reporter prior to Cre-mediated excision. The JAX repository provides a wide selection of cre reporter lines that incorporate distinct reporter molecules.

View a list of all cre reporter strains

Comparison of Selected Cre Reporter Strains

 

Selected publications

Murray SA, Eppig JT, Smedley D, Simpson EM, Rosenthal N. 2012. Beyond knockouts: cre resources for conditional mutagenesis. Mamm Genome 23(9-10):587-599. PMCID:PMC3655717

Heffner CS, Pratt CH, Babiuk RP, Sharma Y, Rockwood SF, Donahue LR, Eppig JT, Murray SA. 2012. Supporting conditional mouse mutagenesis with a comprehensive cre characterization resource. Nat Commun 3(1218):doi:10.1038/ncomms2186. PMCID: PMC3514490