Homozygous Ets2flox mice are viable and fertile. The Ets2flox allele has loxP sites flanking exons 9-10 of the E26 avian leukemia oncogene 2 (Ets2) gene. When bred to mice that express Cre recombinase, the resulting offspring will have the sequences encoding the C-terminal portion of the Ets2 DNA-binding domain deleted in the cre-expressing tissues. This is designed to result in an inactive Ets2 protein lacking a functional DNA-binding domain (the deleted allele is called Ets2db2).
When Ets2flox mice are bred to mice with Cre recombinase expression in embryonic/germ cells (MORE-Cre; Stock No. 003755), the resulting homozygous mice with pan deletion of the Ets2 DNA binding domain exhibit embryonic lethality similar to Ets2 knockout mice. Furthermore, such mice may be used to study mammary epithelial tumor microenvironment when bred to also harbor transgenes expressing either Polyoma virus middle T antigen (see MMTV-PyVT mice [Stock No. 002374]) or activated Neu/ErbB2 (see MMTV-Neu/ErbB2 mice [Stock No. 005038]).
In addition, when Ets2flox mice are bred to a strain expressing Cre recombinase in intestinal epithelial tissues (Villin-Cre; Stock No. 004586), the resulting mice are useful in studying intestinal stem cells, colon crypt development, and chemical carcinogen-induced colon tumorigenesis.
