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Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas (GENSAT)

Information excerpted from the GENSAT website; additional information can be found there.

Background

The GENSAT project aims to map the expression of genes in the central nervous system of the mouse, using in situ hybridization and transgenic mouse techniques. The GENSAT project is sponsored through a contract with the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). The principal investigators of the study are Nathaniel Heintz, Ph.D., and Mary E. Hatten, Ph.D., Professors, Rockefeller University.

The GENSAT collection contains transgenic strains of mice in which each transgene is derived from bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) and expresses a reporter gene in the same environment as the native gene. In each of the BAC transgenic vectors, endogenous protein coding sequences have been replaced by sequences encoding the EGFP reporter gene. As in any gene replacement experiment, the stability of the reporter gene can vary somewhat from the endogenous gene. Thus these results measure the relative rates of transcription for each gene; they are not a direct measure of mRNA accumulation or of protein abundance for the endogenous gene products. Furthermore, the enhanced sensitivity of reporter gene assays, particularly in BAC lines carrying multiple copies of the BAC transgene may allow detection of sites of expression that are not evident in in situ hybridization experiments.

In conjunction with these strains, several cre transgenic strains have been created where BAC engineering was used to insert an intron containing cre or creERT2 cassettes, followed by a polyadenylation sequence to terminate transcription of the fusion transcript immediately after the recombinase gene, into the BAC vector at the initiating ATG codon in the first coding exon of the gene.

The GENSAT database contains histological data from given BAC transgenic mouse lines at three developmental stages – embryonic day 15.5 (E15.5), postnatal day 7 (P7) and adult; in all cases the data represent results of multiple transgenic lines. A link to the data for each strain is provided in the MMRRC Strain Data Sheet. EGFP is visualized by staining with an anti-EGFP antibody using the DAB method, or by confocal microscopy of unstained tissue sections. Protocols for the modification of BACs, BAC transgenesis production, and histology are available at the GENSAT website; a complete description of the procedure can be found in "A gene expression atlas of the central nervous system based on bacterial artificial chromosomes", Nature. 2003 Oct 30;425(6961):917-25.

The recommended citation for the resource is:
The Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas (GENSAT) Project, NINDS Contract # N01NS02331 to The Rockefeller University (New York, NY).

MMRRC holdings

The MMRRC holds over 600 strains in this collection.

Distribution

Strains are distributed using the MMRRC Conditions of Use *(COU). Mice are available only to investigators at not-for-profit institutions.

* The preceding link is to the COU text only; the COU user form will be provided after order submission.

GENSAT Vectors

Vectors used to make the Gene Expression Nervous System Atlas (GENSAT) strains can be obtained through Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI) at: http://www.gensat.org/bacreport.jsp.

Related Links

• MMRRC catalog of all GENSAT lines
• GENSAT website at Rockefeller
• GENSAT database at NCBI
• St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital's BGEM site
• Vectors via CHORI