RUNX1 reporter lines
RUNX1-eGFP and RUNX1-Cre
Summary & Utility
he RUNX1-eGFP line is a transgenic reporter chicken line with Runt-related transcription factor 1 (RUNX1) promoter/enhancer driven eGFP expression, and is based upon the P1 promoter and the +23 enhancer1 of the chicken RUNX1 locus. The RUNX1-eGFP line enables the visualisation of chicken hematopoietic cells and haematopoietic cell progenitor populations2. The specificity and the high level of expression of the eGFP reporter allow for the visualisation of chicken lymphoid tissues (Figure 1).
The RUNX1-Cre line is a transgenic reporter chicken line with chicken RUNX1 promoter/enhancer driven Cre recombinase expression. The RUNX1-Cre line uses the same promoter/enhancer as the RUNX1-eGFP line to drive Cre recombinase expression. This line of birds has also been crossed to the Chameleon line to enable cell lineage tracing and clonal analysis of selected cell populations, such as haematopoietic cells post-hatch, skeletal muscle cells and epithelial cells (Figure 2).


Line origin
The generation of the RUNX1-eGFP and RUNX1-Cre lines was funded by the Medical Research Council (MR/L018160/1). These RUNX1 lines were created by the use of lentiviral gene transfer. The RUNX1 control elements utilised in the construction of the transgene consist of the P1 promoter and the +23 enhancer1. The cell lineage specificity of reporter gene expression was initially confirmed by transfecting chick embryonic blood cells with the RUNX1-eGFP construct to report Runt-related transcription factor 1 gene activity. These lines were developed by Dr Adam Balic and Professor Helen Sang.
To reference this line for publications please contact Dr Adam Balic.
Publications
- Bee, T., Ashley, E. L., Bickley, S. R., Jarratt, A., Li, P. S., Sloane-Stanley, J., Göttgens, B. & de Bruijn, M. F. The mouse Runx1 +23 hematopoietic stem cell enhancer confers hematopoietic specificity to both Runx1 promoters. Blood. 113(21):5121-4 (2009).
- Davey, M. G., Balic, A., Rainger, J., Sang, H. M. & McGrew, M. J. Illuminating the chicken model through genetic modification. Int. J. Dev. Biol. 62, 257–264 (2018).