The ability to manipulate the mouse genome via ES cell technology has had a tremendous impact on our ability to identify the genes required for the development of mammalian embryos. Much is still to be understood about the cell-cell interactions necessary to establish cell lineages and to organize tissues. We propose to develop a binary transgenic system based on Cre/lox technology for ablating specific cell populations in mice. Using this system it will be possible to produce embryos with virtually any cell type ablated by mating two phenotypically normal mouse lines. One line (the """"""""universal ablator"""""""") will have the potential to express a cytotoxin in eves cell, but cytotoxin will not be produced unless Cre enzyme is expressed. The other mouse line will express the cre gene in the intermediate mesoderm (IM). By mating these two lines, we will eliminate the IM. This will enable us to investigate the function of the IM in the early mouse embryo, and specifically to test the hypothesis that the IM produces the limb inducer. This system will potentially be useful for analyzing the functions of many different tissues in the regulation of normal and abnormal organ growth and development.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)
Project #
5F32HD008696-03
Application #
6623232
Study Section
Biological Sciences 2 (BIOL)
Program Officer
Javois, Lorette Claire
Project Start
2001-10-09
Project End
Budget Start
2002-10-09
Budget End
2003-10-08
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$46,192
Indirect Cost
Name
University of California San Francisco
Department
Anatomy/Cell Biology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
073133571
City
San Francisco
State
CA
Country
United States
Zip Code
94143
Mariani, Francesca V; Ahn, Christina P; Martin, Gail R (2008) Genetic evidence that FGFs have an instructive role in limb proximal-distal patterning. Nature 453:401-5