Mice homozygous for this 2-loxP (floxed) allele are viable and fertile, with loxP sites flanking the Snord116 small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs) gene cluster. When bred to mice that express Cre recombinase, the resulting offspring will have this gene cluster deleted in the cre-expressing tissue(s). Because the Snord116 gene cluster is imprinted and only expressed from the paternal allele, breeding 2-loxP males with cre-expressing females may be required to generate deleted offspring with the knockout phenotype. The donating investigator reports that the distance between the two loxP sites (~140 kb) may reduce the recombination efficiency in somatic cells. As deletions of the Snord116 cluster are associated with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), mice carrying the 2-loxP (floxed) allele may be useful in generating conditional mutations for studying the role of Snord116 in growth and feeding regulation, mechanisms of obesity, and pathophysiology of Prader-Willi syndrome.
Of note, mice harboring a deletion of the Snord116 cluster are also available (see Stock No. 008149).
For example, when crossed to a strain expressing Cre recombinase in the female germline (see Stock No. 003651), this mutant mouse strain may be useful in studies of Prader-Willi syndrome.
