Optogenetics Now in Your Favorite Species

Take advantage of the larger brain size of the rat coupled with its richer behavioral profile. Unlike BAC models, Horizon’s rats express cre recombinase outside of the endogenous promoters, so you don’t have to worry about ectopic expression or random integration and potential gene disruption.

The tdTomato Reporter rat possesses the fluorophore tdTomato, sitting behind a floxed stop codon in the Rosa26 locus. Simply introduce Cre- recombinase through viral transduction or by crossing with one of Horizon’s Cre- driver rats, and observe tdTomato fluorescence anywhere Cre- is expressed.

Horizon has generated two opsin lines to help you simplify your optogenetics experiments by eliminating the need for viral transduction. Possessing either Channelrhodopsin (excitatory) or Halorhodopsin (inhibitory) behind a floxed stop codon, simply breed with Cre- driver rats to get neuronal subtype-specific expression of your opsin of choice.

Currently Available Cre-Recombinase Driver Rats:

• ♦ Th-Cre
• ♦ DAT-Cre
• ♦ CamkIIa-Cre

Additional Rat Models for Optogenetics:

• ♦ tdTomato Reporter
• ♦ Channelrhodopsin
• ♦ Halorhodopsin

Horizon Discovery
Information on the research models