B6.Cg-Tg(CD2-icre)4Kio/J

Stock number: 008520
Product name: hCD2-iCre
Research areas: Research Tools

Description

Mice harboring the hCD2-iCre transgene have the human CD2 promoter and locus control region (LCR) directing expression of an optimized variant of Cre recombinase (iCre) to T cells and B cells (all B cell and T cell progenitors) and mice may be useful for generating conditional mutations in T cells and B cells. Because of the integration site of the transgene, the hCD2-iCre transgene is linked to the agouti coat color genes.

Detailed description

Mice hemizygous for this hCD2-iCre transgene are viable and fertile, with the human CD2 promoter and locus control region (LCR) directing expression of an optimized variant of Cre recombinase (iCre) to T cells and B cells (all committed B cell and T cell progenitors). Using crosses to a reporter strain, variegated germ line (testis) and a small monocyte-enriched population expression is also reported. When bred with mice containing a loxP-flanked sequence of interest, Cre-mediated recombination will result in deletion of the floxed sequence(s) in the offspring. These hCD2-iCre transgenic mice may be useful for generating conditional mutations in T cells and B cells.

Of note, this hCD2-iCre strain (Stock No. 008520) allows reliable deletion/gene targeting to be focused to T cells and B cells, whereas the Vav-iCre strain (Stock No. 008610) allows targeting throughout the entire hematopoietic compartment. hCD2-cre mice (Stock No. 027406) allow efficient deletion of genes in peripheral CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells after positive selection in the thymus.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The donating investigator initially reported that while backcrossing these hCD2-iCre transgenic mice to C57BL/6 mice, transgenic mice always exhibited agouti coat color. This linkage suggests that the hCD2-iCre transgene integrated near agouti coat color genes. Due to a recombination event in the JAX colony (May 2015) the coat color is now black.

Development

The hCD2-iCre transgene was designed with the human CD2 promoter, an optimized variant of Cre recombinase (iCre; improved with mammalian codon usage, removed putative cryptic splice sites, altered stop codon, and reduced CpG content to limit the chances of epigenetic silencing in mammals), an SV40 polyA signal, and the human CD2 locus control region (LCR). The transgene was microinjected into the pronuclei of fertilized oocytes from (CBA/Ca x C57BL/10) Fl mice. Founder mice were established (line ".4") and used to generate mutant mice. The resulting hCD2-iCre transgenic mice were subsequently bred to wildtype C57BL/6 mice for more than 15 generations prior to arrival at The Jackson Laboratory Repository. Upon arrival, the hCD2-iCre transgenic mice were bred to C57BL/6J inbred mice (Stock No. 000664) to establish the colony.

Allele

Symbol: Tg(CD2-icre)4Kio
Name: transgene insertion 4, Dimitris Kioussis
MGI accession ID: MGI:2449947
Generation method: Transgenic
Attributes: Recombinase-expressing
Marker symbol: Tg(CD2-icre)4Kio
Marker name: transgene insertion 4, Dimitris Kioussis
Chromosome: UN
Strain of origin: (CBA/Ca x C57BL/10)F2
Expressed genes: cre,cre recombinase,bacteriophage P1
Site of expression: expressed in lymph nodes, thymus, spleen, Peyer's patches, intestinal cryptopatches and testes.
Molecular note: This transgene expresses Cre recombinase under the control of a human CD2 promoter. The promoter was shown to be active in lymph nodes, thymus, spleen, Peyer's patches, intestinal cryptopatches and testes.