Development of a single-cassette system for spatiotemporal gene regulation in mice

The tetracycline-regulated gene expression system has been widely used in mice to turn a transgene on and off in a target organ, but with only limited success. We developed an advanced system in which a Tet-off regulation unit was integrated into the ROSA26 locus and became active after Cre-mediated excision of the neor gene. We examined the utility of this system through regulable expression of the homeodomain transcription factor pdx-1 and enhanced green fluorescent protein. The resulting mice showed strict tetracycline-regulable gene expression in all the organs where the neor gene had been removed. When combined with organ-specific Cre recombinase transgenic mice, our system allows us to manipulate the gene expression in an organ-specific and temporal manner. This Tet-off system should serve as an efficient tool to analyze the roles of genes in complex biological systems, such as embryogenesis, metabolism, immune system, etc.