Next-generation transgenic mice for optogenetic analysis of neural circuits

© The Author(s), 2013. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Frontiers in Neural Circuits 7 (2013): 160, doi:10.3389/fncir.2013.00160.
Here we characterize several new lines of transgenic mice useful for optogenetic analysis of brain circuit function. These mice express optogenetic probes, such as enhanced halorhodopsin or several different versions of channelrhodopsins, behind various neuron-specific promoters. These mice permit photoinhibition or photostimulation both in vitro and in vivo. Our results also reveal the important influence of fluorescent tags on optogenetic probe expression and function in transgenic mice.
This work was supported by a CRP grant from the National Research Foundation of Singapore and by the World Class Institute (WCI )Program of the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF )funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea (MEST) (NRF Grant Number: WCI2009-003).