Application of genetically modified animals in bone research
Genetically modified mice have had an enormous impact on our understanding of skeletal development, maintenance, and disease. Publicly supported efforts to generate and phenotype genes in the mouse have greatly expanded the ease of identifying and characterizing genes that play a role in skeletal tissues. CRISPR/Cas9 technology has led to rapid and cost-effective generation of mice carrying specific mutations. Conditional approaches, which enable cell-specific or temporal control over gene ablation, are the most powerful and precise means of genetic analysis. However, these approaches rely on the use of tissue-selective promoters. Understanding the temporal and spatial dynamics of these extensively used promoters is therefore vital to interpreting phenotypes or lineage studies in mice. We discuss some general features of transgenic overexpression and loss-of-function approaches, large-scale mutagenesis efforts and resources, and some of the most commonly used tissue-selective promoters and transgenic strains for tissue-specific gene analysis in skeletal cells.
