A Genetic Strategy for Stochastic Gene Activation with Regulated Sparseness (STARS)

作者：Wang, Sheng-zhi^*; Liu, Bao-hua; Tao, Huizhong W.; Xia, Kun; Zhang, Li I.

来源：PLos One, 2009, 4(1): e4200.

DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0004200

It remains a challenge to establish a straightforward genetic approach for controlling the probability of gene activation or knockout at a desired level. Here, we developed a method termed STARS: stochastic gene activation with genetically regulated sparseness. The stochastic expression was achieved by two cross-linked, mutually-exclusive Cre-mediated recombinations. The stochastic level was further controlled by regulating Cre/lox reaction kinetics through varying the intrachromosomal distance between the lox sites mediating one of the recombinations. In mammalian cell lines stably transfected with a single copy of different STARS transgenes, the activation/knockout of reporter genes was specifically controlled to occur in from 5% to 50% of the cell population. STARS can potentially provide a convenient way for genetic labeling as well as gene expression/knockout in a population of cells with a desired sparseness level.

• 出版日期2009-1-15
• 单位中南大学