Mice heterozygous for this Ednrbflex3 allele are viable and fertile, with a loxP-flanked neo cassette upstream of exon 3, as well as a loxP site downstream of exon 3 of the Ednrb (endothelin receptor type B or ET-B receptor) gene. When bred to mice that express Cre recombinase, the resulting offspring can have one of three resulting genotypes in the cre-expressing tissue(s); only the neo selection cassette deleted, only exon 3 deleted, or both the neo selection cassette and exon 3 deleted. The two latter genotypes are expected to result in a frameshifted transcript that is reported to confer the null phenotype. These mutant mice may be useful in generating conditional mutations for studying the role of Ednrb in development of melanocytes, development of neurons and glia of the enteric nervous system, neural crest-derived cells, mesenchymal-derived smooth muscle cells, vasodilation, mitogen signaling and cancer, and human Hirschsprung's disease (HSCR).
When bred to a strain expressing Cre recombinase in midbrain/dorsal spinal cord (see Stock No. 009107 for example), this mutant mouse strain may be useful in studies of neural crest development.
