Fox-2 Transgenic Mice

UCLA researchers have developed transgenic mice in which two exons of the Fox-2 (Rbfox2, RBM9) gene are flanked by loxP sites to permit deletion of the gene when the mice are crossed to mice expressing Cre recombinase. Fox-2 is an RNA-binding protein that regulates the alternative splicing of multiple transcripts in neurons and embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Fox-2 has been implicated in neurological disease, including spinocerebellar ataxia type I (SCAI), and has been shown to regulate the alternative splicing of ~7% of all genes in human ESCs. These mice are valuable research tools that can be used to analyze the development and differentiation of ESCs and brain in vivo.