Transcriptional activity assessment of three different promoters for mouse in utero electroporation system

• The transcriptional activity of three commonly used promoters, CMV, CAG and SV40, is evaluated for mouse IUE system.
• CAG promoter is a potent promoter that effectively drives target gene expression in the IUE system.
• 1 μg/μl pCAGGS-target gene is recommended to be used for exploring the function of target gene in the IUE system.
• 0.2–0.5 μg/μl pCAGGS-GFP as indicator is recommended to coexpress with target genes.

In utero electroporation (IUE) is a simple and rapid approach to in vivo investigate exogenous gene function in mouse brain, and intensive studies using IUE have greatly contributed to analyze the characterization of specific steps during mouse brain development. Because the efficiency of IUE is highly dependent on the plasmid used and its concentration, and the transcriptional activity of plasmid is not only regulated by the host defense system, but also by the promoter of the expression vectors. Therefore, in the present study, we evaluated the transcriptional activity of three commonly used promoters, CMV, CAG and SV40, in IUE system through measuring the fluorescence intensity of green fluorescent protein which serves as an indicator. Our results demonstrated that the artificially-designed CAG promoter is a potent promoter that effectively drives target gene expression in IUE system.