Fox-1 Transgenic Mice

UCLA researchers have developed transgenic mice in which two exons of the Fox-1 (Rbfox1, A2BP1) gene are flanked by loxP sites to permit deletion of the gene when the mice are crossed to mice expressing Cre recombinase. Fox-1 is an RNA-binding protein that regulates the alternative splicing of multiple transcripts in neurons. Human Fox-1 has been implicated in various neurodevelopmental disorders, including epilepsy, mental retardation and autism spectrum disorder. These mice are valuable neurological disease models and can be used to understand the development and mature function of the mammalian CNS.