Functional ProTracer identifies patterns of cell proliferation in tissues and underlying regulatory mechanisms

Xiuxiu Liu; Maoying Han; Wendong Weng; Yan Li; Wenjuan Pu; Kuo Liu; Xufeng Li; Lingjuan He; Ruilin Sun; Ruling Shen; Yulong He; Dandan Liang; Yi-Han Chen; Qing-Dong Wang; Jan S Tchorz; Bin Zhou

doi:10.1038/s41536-023-00318-y

Functional ProTracer identifies patterns of cell proliferation in tissues and underlying regulatory mechanisms

NPJ Regen Med. 2023 Aug 3;8(1):41. doi: 10.1038/s41536-023-00318-y.

Authors

Xiuxiu Liu^#¹, Maoying Han^#¹, Wendong Weng^#¹, Yan Li^#^{1

2

3}, Wenjuan Pu¹, Kuo Liu⁴, Xufeng Li⁴, Lingjuan He⁵, Ruilin Sun⁶, Ruling Shen⁷, Yulong He⁸, Dandan Liang⁹, Yi-Han Chen⁹, Qing-Dong Wang¹⁰, Jan S Tchorz¹¹, Bin Zhou^{12

13

14}

Affiliations

¹ New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
² Shandong Laboratory of Yantai Drug Discovery, Bohai Rim Advanced Research Institute for Drug Discovery, Yantai, Shandong, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Systems Health Science of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Science, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
⁵ Westlake University School of Life Sciences, Hangzhou, China.
⁶ Shanghai Model Organisms Center, Inc., Shanghai, China.
⁷ Shanghai Laboratory Animal Research Center, Shanghai, China.
⁸ Cyrus Tang Hematology Center, Collaborative Innovation Center of Hematology, State Key Laboratory of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Cam-Su Genomic Resources Center, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Cardiology, Shanghai East Hospital, Tongji University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China.
¹⁰ Bioscience Cardiovascular, Research and Early Development, Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism (CVRM), BioPharmaceuticals R&D, AstraZeneca, Gothenburg, Sweden.
¹¹ Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland.
¹² New Cornerstone Science Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Cell Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China. zhoubin@sibs.ac.cn.
¹³ Key Laboratory of Systems Health Science of Zhejiang Province, School of Life Science, Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China. zhoubin@sibs.ac.cn.
¹⁴ School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai, China. zhoubin@sibs.ac.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

A genetic system, ProTracer, has been recently developed to record cell proliferation in vivo. However, the ProTracer is initiated by an infrequently used recombinase Dre, which limits its broad application for functional studies employing floxed gene alleles. Here we generated Cre-activated functional ProTracer (fProTracer) mice, which enable simultaneous recording of cell proliferation and tissue-specific gene deletion, facilitating broad functional analysis of cell proliferation by any Cre driver.

Grants and funding

82088101, 32050087, 32100592, 32170848, 32100585, 32100648/National Science Foundation of China | Major Research Plan