This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The objectives of this project are to develop transgenic technologies for the selective activation and inactivation of the neural systems regulating pair bonding on the genetic and cellular level. Development of these resources will have two main foci: 1) the genetic inactivation of oxytocin receptor (Oxtr) and 2) the cellular regulation of oxytocin (OT) release within transgenic lines of prairie voles. Toward the first goal we will take advantage of Cre-lox and siRNA technologies that have been used so successfully in mutant mice to regulate gene expression in a temporally regulated and cell-type specific manner. This new technology is made possible by our recent success in creating transgenic voles using viral vector technology. The second approach uses state-of-the-art transgenic optogenetics to precisely regulate the activity of specific neuronal populations using localized photostimulation. We have successfully obtained all of the DNA constructs and begun to construct the lentiviral vectors that we will use in the production of transgenic voles.
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