In vivo sequential mutagenesis in germinal center B cells using a dual-recombinase approach: FOXO1 re-expression upon FOXO1 knockout rescues class switch recombination

Abstract

Modeling complex (patho)physiological processes by sequential mutagenesis in mice is limited by the lack of optimized genetic tools and complex breeding strategies. We present a new Cre/DreERT2 dual-recombinase germinal center B-cell (GCBC)- specific strain, with co-expression of the recombinases from a single allele. This enables highly efficient Cre-mediated FOXO1 knockout followed by time-controlled, efficient Dre-mediated FOXO1 re-expression and functional rescue in GCBCs, demonstrating suitability for precise targeted sequential mutagenesis in vivo.