Temporally controlled targeted somatic mutagenesis in skeletal muscles of the mouse

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

To generate temporally controlled targeted somatic mutations selectively and efficiently in skeletal muscles, we established a transgenic HSA-Cre-ER(T2) mouse line in which the expression of the tamoxifen-dependent Cre-ER(T2) recombinase is under the control of a large genomic DNA segment of the human skeletal muscle alpha-actin gene, contained in a P1-derived artificial chromosome. In this transgenic line Cre-ER(T2) is selectively expressed in skeletal muscles, and Cre-ER(T2)-mediated alteration of LoxP flanked (floxed) target genes is skeletal muscle-specific and strictly tamoxifen-dependent. HSA-Cre-ER(T2) mice should be of great value to analyze gene function in skeletal muscles, and to establish animal models of human skeletal muscle disorders.