| Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The neurocircuits that process somatic sensory information in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord are still poorly understood, with one reason being the lack of Cre lines for genetically marking or manipulating selective subpopulations of dorsal horn neurons. Here we describe <it>Tac2-Cre </it>mice that were generated to express the <it>Cre </it>recombinase gene from the <it>Tac2 </it>locus. <it>Tachykinin 2 </it>(<it>Tac2</it>) encodes a neurotransmitter, neurokinin B (NKB).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By crossing <it>Tac2-Cre </it>mice with <it>ROSA26-tdTomato </it>reporter mice, we directly visualized <it>Tac2 </it>lineage neurons in the dorsal root ganglia, the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, and many parts of the brain including the olfactory bulb, cerebral cortex, amygdala, hippocampus, habenula, hypothalamus, and cerebellum. This <it>Tac2-Cre </it>allele itself was a null allele for the <it>Tac2 </it>gene. Behavioral analyses showed that <it>Tac2 </it>homozygous null mice responded normally to a series of algogenic (pain-inducing) and pruritic (itch-inducing) stimuli.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p><it>Tac2-Cre </it>mice are a useful tool to mark specific subsets of neurons in the sensory ganglia, the dorsal spinal cord, and the brain. These mice can also be used for future genetic manipulations to study the functions of <it>Tac2</it>-expressing neurons or the functions of genes expressed in these neurons.</p>
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