Establishing suitable animal models of diseases is a very important part of basic discovery research and preclinical studies. Compared with constitutive knockout (KO) or knock-in (KI) mice, conditional knock-out (cKO) or knock-in (cKI) mice can avoid the problem of embryonic lethality. Conditional models can also achieve gene expression in a tissue-specific or inducible manner and are an important tool to accurately study the function of target genes.

*Free Cre rats available with orders of cKO/cKI rats for a limited time.

With our world-class facilities, we can perform any downstream breeding services to deliver the perfect cohort for your research project. Contact us for a free technical consultation and quote.

The establishment of the Cre-loxP site-specific recombination system (a.k.a. Cre-loxP recombination system) has enabled the realization of conditional target gene function research in rats and mice with a high level of control over the spatial and temporal expression of genes. However, researchers seeking to develop cKO or cKI rat models often lack Cre rat strains targeting the target. Given the complexity of breeding protocols for Cre-lox mediated rat projects, such studies are typically restricted by the high costs of maintaining rat-related facilities and space constraints. To address these issues, Cyagen is building a repository of Cre driver rat strains available to researchers worldwide.

Our Cre driver strains cover a variety of conditional, inducible, and reporter rat model types. Our inducible Cre lines (denoted below as CreERT2 rat strains) typically utilize Cre-ERT2 fusion proteins, which require the presence of tamoxifen for activity. Reporter tools, such as the ROSA26-LSL-tdTomato strain, play an important role in verifying specific expression of Cre rat lines. Rosa26-lsl-tdtomato Rat is a Cre reporter tool strain designed to have a loxP flanked STOP cassette preventing transcription of a CAG promoter-driven red fluorescent protein variant (tdTomato) - all inserted into the ROSA26 locus. When mated with Cre rat or TAM-activated CreERT2 rat, the resulting offspring will have the Stop codon excised via Cre activity to express TdTomato so it can emit red fluorescence in Cre or CreERT2-expressing tissue, thereby indicating the location of the modified gene.

Below we have listed the Cre driver strains that may be provided for FREE with a purchase of a cKO/cKI rat. Please inquire for the availability of additional Cre driver rats.