AAV with aMHC promoter driven Cre Inducible Venus

This AAV expresses DIO-Venus driven by a cardiac aMHC promoter.

αMHC(0.4) promoter is derived from the murine α-MHC gene (alpha-myosin heavy chain) and drives cardiac-specific expression. The length of this promoter is 0.4 Kb. Based on studies in primary cardiomyocytes, this aMHC(0.4) promoter gives an expression level that is comparable to that of a CMV promoter.

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).