Foxn1 cre transgenic mice

C57BL/6 (B6) and the congenic strains B10.A and Rag2^–/–, AND TCR-transgenic mice (21 (link)), β-actin-FLPe (22 (link)), FoxN1-Cre-transgenic mice (23 (link)), and β-actin-Cre mice were obtained from Jackson Laboratory. Lck-Cre–transgenic mice were obtained from Taconic. Nr3c1 (GR) exon 3 conditionally targeted mice were described (13 (link)). A conditional Cyp11b1 allele with loxp sites flanking exons 3-5 was generated by recombineering (24 (link)) (Supplemental Fig. 1A) and Cyp11b1-floxed mice were generated using C57BL/6 ES cells. The Neo cassette was removed by crossing floxed mice with β-actin-FLPe transgenic mice. All mice used in this study were backcrossed for at least 6 generations onto B6. Primer sequences used for genotyping are provided in Supplemental Table 1.

WT C57BL/6 mice and FoxN1-Cre-transgenic mice were obtained from the Jackson Laboratory. Aire-deficient and Fezf2^flox/flox mice were gifts of Y. Takahama and N. Sestan, respectively (57 (link), 74 (link)). Fezf2^FoxN1-Cre mice were generated by crossing Fezf2^fl/fl and FoxN1-Cre mice. Mice were used between embryonic day 18.5 and 7 weeks of age, depending on the experiment. Embryonic mice were collected from timed pregnancies of 2- to 3-month-old females. Males were added to the cage and removed after detection of a vaginal plug (embryonic day 0.5). We did not detect any sex differences in 3- to 7-week mice and therefore pooled female and male mice for all analyses. Mice were housed on a 12-hour light/12-hour dark cycle, with ad libitum access to standard chow (NIH-31, Teklad). For experiments examining tissue steroid production, mice were collected between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. (Zeitgeiber time 4 to 9). Sample sizes were selected on the basis of previous studies performed by the laboratory. Mouse genotypes were not randomized, and experimenters were not blinded. All protocols and procedures were approved by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Animal Care and Use Committee (LICB-008) and followed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals guidelines.