Generation and Characterization of Atg5 and Atg7 Conditional Knockout Mice

The generation of Atg5^f/f and Atg7^f/f has been previously described (40 (link), 41 (link)). The Atg5^f/f mice were a kind gift from Dr. Noboru Mizushima (Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan) and the Atg7^f/f mice were kindly provided by Dr. Masaaki Komatsu (Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science, Japan). CD4-Cre transgenic mice, C57BL/6J (B6) and CD45.1 congenic B6.SJL strains were purchased from The Jackson Laboratory and Lck-Cre transgenic mice were obtained from Taconic Farms. The Atg5^f/f mice and Atg7^f/f mice were bred to CD4-Cre or Lck-Cre mice and littermates were used for analysis and comparison. B6 mice were crossed with the B6.SJL mice to generate CD45.1⁺CD45.2⁺ heterozygotes. Mice were maintained under specific pathogen-free conditions, and the experiments were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology.