Thy1-GCaMP6 transgenic mice for neuronal population imaging in vivo

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 9; no. 9; p. e108697
• Main Authors: Dana, Hod, Chen, Tsai-Wen, Hu, Amy, Shields, Brenda C, Guo, Caiying, Looger, Loren L, Kim, Douglas S, Svoboda, Karel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 24.09.2014; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Animals; Behavior, Animal; Biology and Life Sciences; Brain; Brain research; Calcium; Calcium - metabolism; Calcium imaging; Farm buildings; Gene expression; Gene therapy; Gene transfer; Hepatitis; Imaging; Laboratories; Mice; Mice, Transgenic; Microscopy; Neuroimaging; Neurons; Neurons - cytology; Neurons - metabolism; Neurosciences; Population genetics; Protein expression; Proteins; Rodents; Transgenic animals; Transgenic mice; Viral infections; Viruses; Visual cortex; Visual Cortex - cytology; Visual Cortex - physiology; United States > US; Virginia
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0108697

Genetically-encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) facilitate imaging activity of genetically defined neuronal populations in vivo. The high intracellular GECI concentrations required for in vivo imaging are usually achieved by viral gene transfer using adeno-associated viruses. Transgenic expression of GECIs promises important advantages, including homogeneous, repeatable, and stable expression without the need for invasive virus injections. Here we present the generation and characterization of transgenic mice expressing the GECIs GCaMP6s or GCaMP6f under the Thy1 promoter. We quantified GCaMP6 expression across brain regions and neurons and compared to other transgenic mice and AAV-mediated expression. We tested three mouse lines for imaging in the visual cortex in vivo and compared their performance to mice injected with AAV expressing GCaMP6. Furthermore, we show that GCaMP6 Thy1 transgenic mice are useful for long-term, high-sensitivity imaging in behaving mice.