Mice that are homozygous for the targeted mutation are viable, fertile, normal in size and do not display any gross physical or behavioral abnormalities. When used in conjunction with a Cre recombinase-expressing strain, this strain is useful in generating tissue-specific mutants of the floxed allele. Excision of the floxed fragment in B cells results in chromosomal instability, impaired B cell proliferation, reduced class switch recombination, reduced frequency of somatic mutations and increased frequency of DNA breaks. This mutant mouse strain is useful in studies of genome instability, DNA break repair and class switch recombination.
For example, when crossed to a strain expressing Cre recombinase in Mature B cells (see Stock No. 006368), this mutant mouse strain may be useful in studies of class switch recombination and DNA break repair.
