A one-plasmid conditional color-switching transgenic system for multimodal bioimaging

作者：Zheng Lei; Njauw Ching Ni; Martins Green Manuela^*

来源：Transgenic Research, 2008, 17(4): 741-747.

DOI：10.1007/s11248-007-9160-5

• dual-fluorescence
• in vivo imaging
• cell tracing
• non-invasive
• Cre/loxP
• bioluminescence

We have developed a new construct to generate transgenic mice with one plasmid that offers: (1) Cre/loxP-mediated spatial and temporally-controlled tissue-specific transgene expression; (2) A color-switching mechanism that uses spectrum-complementary genetically-encoded red (mRFP) and green (eGFP) fluorescent markers to label the transgene-expressing cells; (3) A bioluminescent marker that turns-on in the transgene-expressing cells; (4) eGFP as a cell surface marker in the transgene-expressing cells that facilitates the isolation and targeting of these cells. This vector was tested in vitro by co-transfection of the transgenic plasmid and a plasmid containing Cre recombinase into cultured cells and by establishing a transgenic mouse line. We show that this method allows versatile transgene expression targeting and color-switching to facilitate fluorescent and bioluminescent imaging both in cultured cells and in vivo. Our strategy provides time-saving features in tissue-specific transgene expression, bioimaging and primary cell isolation and can be used for generation of gene-specific transgenic mice.

• 出版日期2008-8