Conditional Gene Targeting: Dissecting the Cellular Mechanisms of Retinal Degenerations

Table 1

Published potentially useful Cre-drive lines in designing studies related to retinal degeneration.

Major targeted cells	Minor/other expression	Promoter	References
Photoreceptors
M- and S-cone	Not reported	hRgp	[17]
M-cone	Not reported	mMo	[18]
S-cone	Not reported	mSo	[18]
Rod	Rod bipolar	mRho	[19]
Rod	Not reported	Irbp	[20]
Rod	Not reported	hRho	[21, 22]
RPE
*RPE	Optic nerve	hVmd2	[23]
*RPE	Müller cells/optic nerve/INL	hVmd2	[24]
RPE	Pigmented cells	Dct	[25]
RPE	Neural retina	Trp1	[26]
RPE	Lens/neural retina	Modified αA-crystallin	[27]
Müller glia
^#Müller cells	GC and ONL	Pdgfra	[28]
∗Müller cells	INL	hVmd2	[24, 29]
^!#Müller cells	Brain	Glast	[30]
Müller cells	INL/Brain	Thy1	[31, 32]
Müller cells	Brain	Foxg1	[31]
Ganglion cells
GC	Brain	Grik4	[31]
Melanopsin-expressing GC	Not reported	Opn4	[33]
^$GC	Amacrine and horizontal cells	Math5	[34]
GC/neural retina	Brain	Thy1.2	[35]
GC/Amacrine cells	Brain	Chat-(BAC transgenic)	[31, 36]
Inner nuclear layer neurons
^$Amacrine cells	Not reported	Chat-(knockin-Jackson Lab)	[31]
Bipolar cells	photoreceptor/Brain	Pcp2	[37]
^#Rod bipolar cells	Brain	Pcp2	[38]
^$Amacrine and horizontal cells	Not reported	Ptf1a	[39]
Neural retina
#All retinal neurons	Not reported	Chx10	[40]
!All retinal neurons	Brain	PrP	[41]
Neural retina	Brian/multiple tissues	Six3	[42]
#All retinal neurons	Not reported	Dkk3	[43]

*Expression with a tetracycline-inducible approach. ^!Expression with a tamoxifen-inducible approach. ^#Expression with BAC transgenic approach. ^$Expression with knock-in approach. Abbreviations: Chat: choline acetyl transferase Dct: dopachrome tautomerase Dkk3: Dickkopf family protein 3 Foxg1: Forkhead box G1, Glast: glutamate/aspartate transporter, Grik4: glutamate receptor, ionotropic kainate 4 precursor, hRgp: human red/green pigment, Math5: murine atonal homolog 5, mRho: mouse rhodopsin, mMo: mouse M-opsin, mSo: Mouse S-opsin, Opn4: melanopsin, Pcp2: purkinje cell protein 2, Pdgfra: platelet-derived growth factor receptor-α, PrP: Prion protein, Ptf1a: pancreas specific transcription factor 1a, Six3: six/sine oculis subclass of homeobox gene, Thy1.2: Thymus cell antigen 1.2, and Trp1: tyrosinase-related protein.