A Novel Reporter Rat Strain That Conditionally Expresses the Bright Red Fluorescent Protein tdTomato

PLoS One. 2016 May 19;11(5):e0155687. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0155687. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Despite the strength of the Cre/loxP recombination system in animal models, its application in rats trails that in mice because of the lack of relevant reporter strains. Here, we generated a floxed STOP tdTomato rat that conditionally expresses a red fluorescent protein variant (tdTomato) in the presence of exogenous Cre recombinase. The tdTomato signal vividly visualizes neurons including their projection fibers and spines without any histological enhancement. In addition, a transgenic rat line (FLAME) that ubiquitously expresses tdTomato was successfully established by injecting intracytoplasmic Cre mRNA into fertilized ova. Our rat reporter system will facilitate connectome studies as well as the visualization of the fine structures of genetically identified cells for long periods both in vivo and ex vivo. Furthermore, FLAME is an ideal model for organ transplantation research owing to improved traceability of cells/tissues.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Cell Lineage
  • Chromosomes, Artificial, Bacterial
  • Dependovirus
  • Electroporation
  • Erythrocytes / cytology
  • Female
  • Fertilization
  • Fibroblasts / metabolism
  • Genes, Reporter
  • Hippocampus / metabolism
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional
  • Integrases
  • Luminescent Proteins / genetics*
  • Macrophages / metabolism
  • Male
  • RNA, Messenger / metabolism
  • Rats
  • Rats, Transgenic*
  • Red Fluorescent Protein
  • Transgenes

Substances

  • Luminescent Proteins
  • RNA, Messenger
  • Cre recombinase
  • Integrases

Grants and funding

This study was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (Comprehensive Brain Science Network) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/grants01.html, a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Mesoscopic Neurocircuitry” (No. 23115501 & 25115701) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/grants01.html, a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas “Adaptive Circuit Shift” (No. 15H01413 to HY and No. 15H01415 to YY) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/grants01.html, a Grant-in-Aid for challenging Exploratory Research (No. 25670103 and 15K15025 to HY), MEXT, Japan: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/grants01.html, the JSPS KAKENHI (25250001 to HY, 26293213 to SM, and 25290002 to TI): http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/grants01.html, Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST), Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) (TI, YY and HY): http://www.jst.go.jp/kisoken/crest/en/index.html, Subsidies for Private Universities (Showa University of Medicine and Hyogo College of Medicine) to KI, a Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (No. 15J05551) of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) to HI: http://www.jsps.go.jp/english/e-grants/grants01.html, Tohoku University Institute for International Advanced Research and Education (IIARE) to HI: http://www.iiare.tohoku.ac.jp/education/index.html.