Inducible Genetic Targeting in Mice

As indicated throughout the study, mice of both sexes and ages (4–17 weeks) were used. Founder animals were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory for the following strains: C57BL6/J (000664), Pde6b^rd10/rd10 (004297), Cx3cr1^CreERT2 (020940), and Cx3cr1^GFP (005582).⁸ (link) All mice were backcrossed to the C57BL6/J background for at least 10 generations. Animals were housed and maintained in the IST Austria Preclinical Facility, with 12 h light-dark cycle and food and water provided ad libitum. All animal procedures were approved by the Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Wirtschaft (bmwfw) Tierversuchsgesetz 2012, BGBI. I Nr. 114/2012 (TVG 2012) under the number GZ BMWFW-66.018/005-WF/V3b/2016 and by IST Austria Ethics Officer. For tamoxifen administration, Cx3cr1^CreERT2/+ and C57BL6/J mice received intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections of tamoxifen (Sigma Aldrich, T5648-5G) dissolved in corn oil (Sigma Aldrich, C8267-500ML, 150 mg/kg body weight, 20 mg/mL stock solution) at the age of 4–6 weeks once per day for 3 consecutive days.