Mice homozygous for this "floxed" Notch1 allele (fN1) are viable and fertile. These mice possess loxP sites on either side of exon 1 of the targeted gene. When bred to mice with a Cre recombinase gene, exon 1 of the targeted gene is deleted in the cre expressing tissue(s). These conditional knockout mice may be useful in generating tissue-specific mutants for studying the development of a wide range of tissues: for example, when crossed to a strain expressing Cre recombinase primarily in the nervous system (see Stock No. 003771), this mutant strain may be useful in studies of apoptosis in neural development.
When crossed to a strain expressing a differential Cre mediated reporter protein labeling: Notch1 signaling in actively cycling stem/progenitor cells (see Stock No. 006953), this mutant strain may be useful in studies of loss of Notch1 heterozygosity.
When bred to mice carrying Tg(Wnt1-cre)11Rth (Stock No. 009107), Cre recombinase expression in the midbrain and developing neural tube results in postnatal lethality.
In an attempt to offer alleles on well-characterized or multiple genetic backgrounds, alleles are frequently moved to a genetic background different from that on which an allele was first characterized. It should be noted that the phenotype could vary from that originally described. We will modify the strain description if necessary as published results become available.
