Development of animal model enabling the manipulation of intracellular Ca level

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

To achieve the manipulation of intracellular Ca2+ levels in the cell-type specific manner, we established the transgenic animal in which melanopsin (human OPN4 gene) was expressed in cell-type specific manner. We generated tetO-melanopsin transgenic mice and crossed with neuronal tTA (orexin-tTA) mice. Orexin neurons expressed enough amount of melanopsin to evoke cell firing, demonstrating the successful manipulation. In case of crossing with glial tTA mice, there was no induction. To improve melanopsin induction in glial cells, we generated STOP tetO-melanopsin knockin mice using mouse melanopsin locus. Unlike previous tetO knockin mice, none of glial tTA line induced melanopsin yet. We were able to express sufficient amount of melanopsin in neuronal cells and manipulate cell function by illumination, however, we failed to express melanopsin in glial cells.