The Human Ubiquitin C Promoter Directs High Ubiquitous Expression of Transgenes in Mice

Abstract

Transgenic mice provide one of the best experimental systems to study gene function in vivo. Although transgenic mice carry the additional genetic material in every cell of the body, expression of the transgenes under the control of constitutive promoter/enhancer units, such as the murine major histocompatibility complex promoter H2-K b, the CMV enhancer/promoter, the murine Pgk-1 promoter or the chicken cytoplasmatic β-actin promoter is often restricted to a limited number of tissues (1–5). However, for most experimental dominant gain-of-function approaches addressing the role of a given protein in a multicellular organism an ubiquitous expression of the transgene might be highly desired. Here we report the application of a powerful expression vector using the 5′-flanking region of the human ubiquitin C gene that allows very efficient expression of a given transgene in a broad range of tissues.