C.B6-Arg1^tm1Pmu/J

Stock number: 008879
Research areas: Research Tools

Description

These Arg1^flox mutant mice (Arg1, arginase 1, liver) may be useful in generating conditional mutations for studies of immune response to bacterial and parasitic infections and argininemia.

Detailed description

These mice possess loxP sites on either side of exons 7 and 8 of the targeted gene. Mice that are homozygous for this allele are viable, fertile, normal in size and do not display any gross physical or behavioral abnormalities. When these mutant mice are bred to mice that express Cre recombinase, resulting offspring will have exons 7 and 8 deleted in the cre-expressing tissue(s).

When bred to a strain with inducible Cre recombinase expression in the myeloid cell lineages (see Stock No. 004781, for example ) or endothelial cells (see Stock No. 004128 , for example), this mutant mouse strain may be useful in studies of immune response to bacterial and parasitic infections.

Development

A loxP site flanked targeting vector containing PGK-Neo selection cassette was utilized in the construction of this mutant. This selection cassette was inserted downstream of exon 8 of the targeted gene, and another loxP site was inserted upstream of exon 7. This construct was electroporated into C57BL/6 derived Bruce4 embryonic stem (ES) cells which were transiently transfected with a Cre recombinase vector to remove the selection cassette. ES cells that had successfully undergone Cre- mediated recombination and no longer retained the cassette but did retain the loxP-flanked exons 7 and 8 were injected in recipient blastocysts. Resulting chimeric male animals were backcrossed to wildtype C57BL/6 mice. The mice were then backcrossed to BALB/cJ mice for generations before arriving at The Jackson Laboratory.

Allele

Symbol: Arg1^tm1Pmu
Name: targeted mutation 1, Peter J Murray
MGI accession ID: MGI:3826847
Generation method: Targeted
Attributes: Conditional ready (e.g. floxed); No functional change
Marker symbol: Arg1
Marker name: arginase, liver
Chromosome: 10
Strain of origin: B6.Cg-Thy1^a
Molecular note: A loxP site was inserted upstream of exon 7 and a loxP-flanked neomycin selection cassette was inserted downstream of exon 8. Transient expression of cre recombinase removed the neomycin cassette, leaving exons 7 and 8 floxed. These exons encode in addition to the oligomerization domain, two highly conserved aspartic acid residues that are essential to the enzymatic activity of the gene product. Correct targeting was confirmed by genomic PCR.