Comparison of the Spatiotemporal Expression Patterns of Three Cre Lines, Emx1IRES-Cre, D6-Cre and hGFAP-Cre, Commonly Used in Neocortical Development Research. (21st September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zhou, Jiafeng; Liu, Gaoao; Zhang, Xiaoling; Wu, Chao; Ma, Mengjie; Wu, Jiarui; Hou, Lin; Yin, Bin; Qiang, Boqin; Shu, Pengcheng; Peng, Xiaozhong
• Is Part Of: Cerebral cortex. Volume 32:Number 8(2022)
• Page Start: 1668
• Page End: 1681
• Publication Date: 2021-09-21
• Subjects: Neocortical development -- Cre-loxP -- Neural progenitor cells -- Hippocampus -- Dicer; Cerebral cortex -- Periodicals; Brain -- Periodicals; 612.825
• DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab305
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1047-3211

Abstract

Abstract: Emx1 IRES -Cre, D6-Cre and hGFAP-Cre are commonly used to conditionally manipulate gene expression or lineage tracing because of their specificity in the dorsal telencephalon during early neurogenesis as previously described. However, the spatiotemporal differences in Cre recombinase activity would lead to divergent phenotypes. Here, we compared the patterns of Cre activity in the early embryos among the three lines by mating with reporter mice. The activities of Emx1 IRES -Cre, D6-Cre and hGFAP-Cre were observed in the dorsal telencephalon, starting from approximately embryonic day 9.5, 11.5 and 12.5, respectively. Although all the three lines have activity in radial glial cells, Emx1 IRES -Cre fully covers the dorsal and medial telencephalon, including the archicortex and cortical hem. D6-Cre is highly restricted to the dorsal telencephalon with anterior-low to posterior-high gradients, partially covers the hippocampus, and absent in the cortical hem. Moreover, both Emx1 IRES -Cre and hGFAP-Cre exhibit Cre activity outside the dorsal neocortex. Meanwhile, we used the three Cre lines to mediate Dicer knockout and observed inconsistent phenotypes, including discrepancies in radial glial cell number, survival and neurogenesis in the neocortex and hippocampus. Together we proved differences in Cre activity can perturb the resultant phenotypes, which aid researchers in appropriate experimental design.