This strain expresses Cre recombinase under the control of the endogenous Meox2 promoter. Expression of Cre recombinase is observed in epiblast-derived tissues as early as embryonic day 5. The insertion creates a null allele for the Meox2 gene. Homozygous mice are viable on this background but exhibit an overall reduction in muscle mass and the absence of specific muscles resulting in abnormal limb posture and reduced motility. This phenotype is variable. As many as 80% of homozygotes are severely affected, fail to thrive and die before weaning. Some homozygotes (10%) exhibit clefting of the secondary palate. These mice can be utilized as a deleter strain for loxP flanked DNA and provide an alternative to tetraploid embryo analysis.

In an attempt to offer alleles on well-characterized or multiple genetic backgrounds, alleles are frequently moved to a genetic background different from that on which an allele was first characterized. It should be noted that the phenotype could vary from that originally described. We will modify the strain description if necessary as published results become available.

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This knock-in strain expresses Cre recombinase under the control of the endogenous Meox2 promoter with Cre recombinase active in early embryos. These mice can be utilized as a deleter strain for floxed genes and provide an alternative to tetraploid embryo analysis.

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