Lineage Tracing Mouse Models

Common lineage tracing reporters include Rosa26-tdTomato (red fluorescent protein), Rosa26-GFP (green fluorescent protein), Rosa26-LacZ (beta-galactosidase), and multi-color systems like Rosa26-Confetti (stochastic color switching). Selection depends on imaging modality, tissue type, and whether multi-color clonal analysis is needed.

Tamoxifen-inducible Cre (CreER) provides temporal control of reporter activation. A single tamoxifen pulse marks cells expressing the Cre driver at that moment. All descendants of those marked cells retain the reporter, enabling tracking of cell fate decisions and clonal expansion over time.

Yes. Lineage tracing and conditional knockout can be combined by crossing a CreER driver to both a reporter line and a floxed target gene. Tamoxifen treatment simultaneously marks cells (lineage tracing) and deletes the target gene (conditional knockout), enabling study of gene function specifically in traced cell populations.

Common CreER drivers include tissue specific promoters (e.g., Myh6-CreER for cardiomyocytes, Albumin-CreER for hepatocytes, Nestin-CreER for neural cells) and cell type specific promoters (e.g., alpha-SMA-CreER for smooth muscle, CD4-CreER for T cells). Selection depends on the cell population you want to trace.