Figure 5.

Transgenic expression of Rab27a and Rab27aCVLL in ashen mice. (A) Organization of transgenic construct encoding Rab27aCVLL under the control of β-actin promoter. The P_CAG/mycRab27/β-globin construct contains the CMV enhancer (dark green) and the chicken β-actin promoter sequence (light green) upstream of a myc-tag (dark blue) in frame with Rab27a cDNA (light blue), followed by the rabbit β-globin poly(A) sequence (red). (B and C) Photography of representative mice for a Rab27aCVLL rescue experiment. Littermates resulting from a cross between a homozygous ashen mouse with a heterozygous transgenic mouse were genotyped as described under MATERIALS AND METHODS. In B from left to right are shown an ashen homozygous mouse that does not carry the transgene (ash/ash), an ashen homozygous mouse expressing transgenic Rab27aCVLL (ash/ash, —/tg^Rab27aCVLL), and a heterozygous control mouse (+/ash). In C from left to right are shown an ashen homozygous mouse expressing transgenic Rab27a (ash/ash, —/tg^Rab27a), a heterozygous control mouse (+/ash), and ashen homozygous mouse that does not carry the transgene (ash/ash). (D–F) Primary melanocytes from littermate ash/ash (D), ash/ash, —/tg^Rab27CVLL (E), or wild type +/+ (F) were cultured and subjected to phase contrast light microscopy as described under MATERIALS AND METHODS. Bars, 20 μm.