In breeding two different strains of transgenic mice, I had a small yield of "true" wildtype animals (negative on all of the genes/promoters of interest). However, I did get a good amount of animals with no mutations in amyloid or tau but had the Camk2a promoter present.
Is it suitable for me to use these animals (with JUST the promoter) as a control in my experimental design if I can't get appropriate "true" wildtype ns?
Thank you!
Could you be a more specific and detailed about the lines you are using please? I guess you are crossing a Cre line that expresses Cre under the CamK2a promotor with floxed mouse lines. Controls are always hard, especially if one is working with Cre lines. It is essential that they are litter mates. When one uses a cross between a Cre line and a floxed line the only correct way is to use all four genotypes, i.e. (Cre negative -/-; Cre negative f/f; Cre positive -/- and Cre positive f/f). This way you can always see if any of the random insertions of the transgene has an effect on your outcome measure.
How can the promoter be separated from the gene (to "promote") in this transgenic design? Sound weird. But independent from that the CamK (transgenic) animals are no good wt controls...
Thank you for your responses. I have found literature showing that you should indeed test the animals with just the promoter present (CaMKIIa) as well as the wildtypes in experimental designs.