Visualizing Estrogen Receptor-Alpha-Expressing Neurons Using A New Er Alpha-Zsgreen Reporter Mouse Line

Background. A variety of biological functions of estrogens, including regulation of energy metabolism, are mediated by neurons expressing estrogen receptor-alpha (ER alpha) in the brain. However, complex intracellular processes in these ER alpha-expressing neurons are difficult to unravel, due to the lack of strategy to visualize ER alpha-expressing neurons, especially in unfixed brain tissues.Results and conclusions. Here we generated a novel ER alpha-ZsGreen reporter mouse line in which expression of a green fluorescent reporter protein, ZsGreen, is driven by a 241 kb ER alpha gene promoter. We validated that ZsGreen is highly colocalized with endogenous ER alpha in the brain. Native ZsGreen signals were visualized in unfixed brain tissue, and were used to assist single cell collection and electrophysiological recordings. Finally, we demonstrated that this ER alpha-ZsGreen mouse allele can be used in combination with other genetic reporter alleles to allow experiments in highly selective neural populations. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.