Adult mice (8–12 weeks of age) are utilized for this study. Mice are housed in the animal facilities of the Washington University School of Medicine on a 12 hour light/dark cycle, with access ad libitum to food and water. Institutionally approved protocols are followed for all aspects of this study.
Three Cre-driver lines are used for this study including heterozygous SNS-Cre mice from Rohini Kuner21 , heterozygous TrpV1-Cre mice from Mark Hoon22 (link), and heterozygous Advillin-Cre mice provided by Fan Wang.14 (link) Mice from each of these three lines are crossed to homozygous Ai32 mice from Jackson Laboratory. As previously described, Ai32 mice harbor ChR2 (H134R)-eYFP in the Gt(ROSA)26Sor locus.23 (link) To generate mice with conditional expression of ChR2 in specific populations of sensory neurons, mice with ChR2 in the Rosa locus (Ai32 mice) are crossed to mice expressing cre from various sensory neuron-specific driver gene loci (Advillin, TrpV1, or SNS). For the purposes of this study, the three lines generated are referred to as Advillin-ChR2, TrpV1-ChR2, and SNS-ChR2, respectively.
Three Cre-driver lines are used for this study including heterozygous SNS-Cre mice from Rohini Kuner21 , heterozygous TrpV1-Cre mice from Mark Hoon22 (link), and heterozygous Advillin-Cre mice provided by Fan Wang.14 (link) Mice from each of these three lines are crossed to homozygous Ai32 mice from Jackson Laboratory. As previously described, Ai32 mice harbor ChR2 (H134R)-eYFP in the Gt(ROSA)26Sor locus.23 (link) To generate mice with conditional expression of ChR2 in specific populations of sensory neurons, mice with ChR2 in the Rosa locus (Ai32 mice) are crossed to mice expressing cre from various sensory neuron-specific driver gene loci (Advillin, TrpV1, or SNS). For the purposes of this study, the three lines generated are referred to as Advillin-ChR2, TrpV1-ChR2, and SNS-ChR2, respectively.
