AAV with GFAP(2.2) promoter driven Cre Inducible mCherry

This AAV expresses DIO-mCherry driven by an astrocyte GFAP(2.2) promoter.

The GFAP(2.2) promoter is based on human glial fibrillary acidic protein gene (GFAP), which is the major intermediate filament protein in astrocytes. It has been shown that approximately 2 kb of 5'-flanking DNA of the human GFAP gene is sufficient to direct transgene expression to astrocytes and confer developmental/injury-induced regulation.

In the DIO scenario, the transgene of interest is inserted in reverse orientation relative to the 5' promoter and is flanked by oppositely oriented loxP and lox2272 sites. In the absence of Cre expression, the transgene will not be produced. In the presence of Cre expression, the transgene will be "FLip-EXchanged" or FLEXed, leading to expression of the transgene. This is due to a permanent Cre-mediated recombination/inversion of the flanked transgene. This arrangement is called DIO (double-floxed inverse ORF), Cre-ON, Flex-rev (reverse), Flex-ON/FlexON, or DIO-AAV/AAV-DIO (double-floxed inverse ORF in AAV).