B6.Cg-Tg(Cd4-cre)1Cwi/BfluJ

Stock number: 022071
Product name: CD4Cre
Research areas: Immunology, Inflammation and Autoimmunity Research, Research Tools

Description

CD4-Cre transgenic mice contain CD4 enhancer, promoter and silencer sequences driving the expression of a Cre recombinase gene. These mice may be useful for generating conditional mutations in CD4-expressing tissues.

Detailed description

CD4-Cre transgenic mice contain CD4 enhancer, promoter and silencer sequences driving the expression of a Cre recombinase gene. Hemizygotes are viable and fertile. Specifically, Cre recombinase expression is observed in CD4-expressing T cells during sequential stages of T cell development in lymphoid tissues. Cre expression commences at the very late double-negative stage and generally results in >99% deletion of loxP flanked genes by the double-positive stage of T-cell development. When these transgenic mice are bred with mice containing a loxP-flanked sequence, Cre-mediated recombination is expected to result in deletion of the floxed sequences in the Cre recombinase-expressing tissues of the offspring. These mice may be useful for studying CD4 T cell maturation and proliferation.

Development

The CD4-Cre transgene was designed with the CD4 enhancer, promoter and silencer sequence driving the expression of a Cre recombinase gene. This transgene was injected into oocytes and mice from founders line 1 were bred to C57BL/6 mice. Founder 1 integrated on chromosome 3 at position 60335693-60341285 (qD)and contains at least 15 complete sequential copies of the transgenic construct (Westendorf K, etal, J Immunol Methods 2016 Sep;436:54-7). This strain had been maintained on a C57BL/6 background when it was obtained by Dr. Binfeng Lu at University of Pittsburgh. These mice were then bred to mice carrying a floxed-Eomes (eomesodermin homolog) mutation (see Stock No. 017293) and a Tbx21 (T-box 21) knockout allele (see Stock No. 004432 and 004648). The donating investigator reported that these triple mutants were backcrossed with C57BL/6 inbred mice for ten generations. These mice arrived at the Jackson Laboratory Repository as Stock No. 017336 and were bred to C57BL/6J inbred mice (Stock No. 000664) for at least one generation. Subsequently, the floxed-Eomes allele and Tbx21 knockout allele were bred out of the colony, resulting in a colony of CD4-cre transgenic mice. These mice were backcrossed to C57BL/6J mice to generate this congenic strain (Stock No. 022071).

In ~2013, a 32 SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) panel analysis determined that all of the 27 markers throughout the genome suggest a C57BL/6 genetic background.

From 2015-2020, the 48 SNP panel analyses performed on cohorts from the live colony show that all of the markers throughout the genome were C57BL/6 allele-type, with all 5 C57BL/6 substrain SNPs showing C57BL/6J allele-type.

Allele

Symbol: Tg(Cd4-cre)1Cwi
Name: transgene insertion 1, Christopher B Wilson
MGI accession ID: MGI:2386448
Generation method: Transgenic
Attributes: Recombinase-expressing
Marker symbol: Tg(Cd4-cre)1Cwi
Marker name: transgene insertion 1, Christopher B Wilson
Chromosome: 3
Strain of origin: (C57BL/6 x DBA/2)F2
Expressed genes: cre,cre recombinase,bacteriophage P1
Site of expression: T cells
Molecular note: Cre recombinase is expressed under the control of mouse Cd4 regulatory elements. The Cd4 enhancer, promoter and silencer collectively drive expression at sequential stages specifically of CD4⁺ T cell development. The integration site of the transgene construct is at position 60335693-60341285 (qD) of chromosome 3 and the insert contains at least 15 complete sequential copies of the transgenic construct.