Sirt6 LoxP (Sirt6tm1.1Cxd) Mouse Model for Liver Studies

Generation of floxed Sirtuin 6 for the construction of conditional knockout mice.

The Sirtuins (Sirt1-7), a family of seven proteins related to yeast Sir2, are histone deacetylases that regulate many critical biological processes including genomic stability, adaptation to calorie restriction and aging. Mice with a targeted disruption of Sirt6 had very low levels of blood glucose (and paradoxically, low insulin levels) and died shortly after weaning. Hypoglycemia, attributed to increased sensitivity to insulin, was the major cause for lethality.

Hspa2 Knockout Mice for Study of Spermatogenesis and Male Infertility

HSPA2 is a member of the HSP70 family of heat-shock proteins that serve as molecular chaperones. Researchers discovered that HSPA2 protein is expressed in spermatogenesis during the meiotic phase. Spermatogenic cells lacking the HSPA2 protein arrest in mid-meiosis and undergo apoptosis. HSPA2 is present in the synaptonemal complex of wild-type mice and the chromosomes fail to separate in HSPA2-deficient mice (previously known as Hsp70-2-/- mice), suggesting that HSPA2 is required for the chromosomal events of meiosis such as synapsis, crossing over, or recombination.

Transgenic Hspa2-Cre Mice for Studying Spermatogenesis and Male Infertility

HSPA2 is a member of the HSP70 family of heat-shock proteins that serve as molecular chaperones. Hspa2-cre expression mimics the spermatogenic cell-specific expression of endogenous HSPA2 within the testis, being first observed in leptotene/zygotene spermatocytes. Expression of the transgene is also detected at restricted sites in the brain, as occurs for endogenous HSPA2.