Targeting of the Enhanced Green Fluorescent Protein Reporter to Adrenergic Cells in Mice

    Authors

    J. X. Xia; N. Varudkar; C. N. Baker; I. Abukenda; C. Martinez; A. Natarajan; A. Grinberg; K. Pfeifer;S. N. Ebert

    Comments

    Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

    Abbreviated Journal Title

    Mol. Biotechnol.

    Keywords

    Phenylethanolamine-N-methyltransferase; Adrenal medulla; Chromaffin; cells; Green fluorescent protein; Knock-in; PHENYLETHANOLAMINE-N-METHYLTRANSFERASE; MOUSE FETAL-DEVELOPMENT; EMBRYONIC STEM-CELLS; MESSENGER-RNA; RAT-HEART; CATECHOLAMINES; EPINEPHRINE; EXPRESSION; GENE; LYMPHOCYTES; Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology

    Abstract

    Adrenaline and noradrenaline are important neurotransmitter hormones that mediate physiological stress responses in adult mammals, and are essential for cardiovascular function during a critical period of embryonic/fetal development. In this study, we describe a novel mouse model system for identifying and characterizing adrenergic cells. Specifically, we generated a reporter mouse strain in which a nuclear-localized enhanced green fluorescent protein gene (nEGFP) was inserted into exon 1 of the gene encoding Phenylethanolamine n-methyltransferase (Pnmt), the enzyme responsible for production of adrenaline from noradrenaline. Our analysis demonstrates that this knock-in mutation effectively marks adrenergic cells in embryonic and adult mice. We see expression of nEGFP in Pnmt-expressing cells of the adrenal medulla in adult animals. We also note that nEGFP expression recapitulates the restricted expression of Pnmt in the embryonic heart. Finally, we show that nEGFP and Pnmt expressions are each induced in parallel during the in vitro differentiation of pluripotent mouse embryonic stem cells into beating cardiomyocytes. Thus, this new mouse genetic model should be useful for the identification and functional characterization of adrenergic cells in vitro and in vivo.

    Journal Title

    Molecular Biotechnology

    Volume

    54

    Issue/Number

    2

    Publication Date

    1-1-2013

    Document Type

    Article

    Language

    English

    First Page

    350

    Last Page

    360

    WOS Identifier

    WOS:000318308400026

    ISSN

    1073-6085

    Share

    COinS