Strain Detail: lox-Picchu(F0-#1) mice

The lox-Picchu(F0-#1) mice are transgenic mice expressing the probe which is consisted of förster (or fluorescence) resonance energy transfer (FRET) biosensor (Picchu) monitoring the phosphorylation of Crk added with lox-tdKeima. Crk, an intracellular signal transduction molecule, is a adaptor molecule consisted of only SH2 and SH3 domains. It transduces the signal from tyrosine kinase to downstream and it's related to cell proliferation and cancer. This strain expresses Keima fluorescent protein under the control of CAG promoter in almost all tissues. These mice are able to switch expression tissue-specifically from Keima fluorescent protein to FRET biosensor by mating with tissue-specific Cre-expressed mouse. It's possible to measure Rac1 activity spatially and temporally in fetal or adult various tissues by live imaging observation of this strain in the two-photon microscopy. This strain expects not only to analyze the signal transduction cascade in live animals, but also apply drug development such as the pharmacodynamic analysis targeting signal molecules, because these mice are showed rich expression in primary cultured cells derived from various tissues. FRET biosensor generally can't use for fixed samples.