Table 1. Summary of recent lineage tracing studies of pre- and mature adipocytes.

	Genetic approach	Promoter location1	Rationale	Reported result2	References3
White adipocytes	sox10-Cre; R26R-eYFP	Transgene	Sox10 expresses in pre- and migratory neural crest cells at all rostro-caudal levels	Mature adipocytes in the salivary gland labeled positive; pgWAT and ingWAT labeled negative	[103, 139]
	PPARγ-tTA;TRE-Cre; R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	PPARγ is a nuclear receptor expressed in all tissues and is critical for adipogenesis	IngWAT and rWAT positive; some positive SVF cells	[82]
	aP2-GFP	Transgene	aP2 (FABP4) expresses in mature adipocytes and is a target of PPARγ	ingWAT positive	[82]
	aP2-Cre;R26R-LacZ	Transgene	Described above	ingWAT and pgWAT positive	[82]
	PDGFRβ-Cre; R26R-LacZ	Transgene	PDFGRβ is expressed in vascular mural cells	ingWAT and rWAT positive	[82, 140]
	myf5-Cre; R26R-eYFP	Knock-in	Myf5 is a muscle differentiation transcription factor that is first expressed in the dermomyotome at E8.0 and expresses in adult satellite cells	ingWAT and pgWAT negative	[116, 117]
	wnt1-Cre; R26R-eYFP	Transgene	Restrictive marker of migrating neural crest cells	Cephalic WAT positive; pgWAT and ingWAT negative. 70% of adipocyte precursors in cephalic WAT positive; all ingWAT adipocyte precursors negative	[104, 141]
	LysM-Cre; R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	The lysozyme M is exclusively expressed in macrophages and granulocytes	5-20% of pgWAT adipocytes positive	[110, 111]
	VE-cadherin-Cre; R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	VE-cadherin is expressed in endothelial cells, is involved in cell adhesion, and is essential for vascular system development	ingWAT and pgWAT positive	[96, 98]
	VE-cadherin-Cre; R26R-eGFP	Knock-in	Described above	Subset of mature adipocytes in the pgWAT positive	[96, 98]
	VE-cadherin-CreERT2; R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	VE-cadherin-CreERT2 is a tamoxifen-inducible version of the VE-cadherin-Cre	Numerous adipocytes in the ingWAT, pgWAT and BAT positive	[97, 98]
	ZFP423-GFP	Knock-in	Zfp423 is a transcriptional regulator broadly expressed but essential for preadipocyte commitment	ingWAT positive	[95]
	pax3-Cre; R26R-mTmG	Knock-in	Pax3 is a muscle differentiation transcription factor first expressed in dorsal neural crest and somites; it cooperates with Myf5 to drive muscle development	50% of the adipogenic SVF cells from asWATs positive	[123, 124]
	myf5-Cre;R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	Described above	Mature adipocytes from asWATs and rWAT positive; Few mature adipocytes from ingWAT and pgWAT positive; 50-60% of adipogenic SVF cells from asWAT and rWAT positive; <2% from the ingWAT and pgWAT positive	[83, 117]
	myf5-Cre;R26R-eYFP	Knock-in	Described above	50-70% of the adipocyte precursors from asWATs and rWAT positive; <10% of the adipocyte precursors from pgWAT and ingWAT positive	[83, 117]
	vav1-Cre; R26R-mTmG	Knock-in	Vav1 is a proto-oncogene that expresses in the hematopoietic and lymphoid systems	All adipocyte precursors and mature adipocytes from ingWAT, pgWAT, rWAT and mWAT negative	[100, 112]
	tie2-Cre;R26R-mTmG	Transgene	Tie2 is an angiopoietin receptor specific to endothelial cells and some hematopoietic cells	All adipocyte precursors and mature adipocytes from ingWAT, pgWAT, rWAT and mWAT negative	[100, 142]
	VE-cadherin-Cre; R26R-mTmG	Knock-in	Described above	All adipocyte precursors and mature adipocytes from ingWAT, pgWAT, rWAT and mWAT negative	[96, 100]
	PDFGRα-Cre; R26R-mTmG	Transgene	PDGFRα is expressed in most mesenchymal cells can activate the MAPK, PI3K and PLCγ signaling pathways	All adipocyte precursors and mature adipocytes from ingWAT, pgWAT, rWAT and mWAT positive	[100, 143]
Brown adipocytes	En1-Cre;R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	Engrailed 1 is a homeobox transcription factor that expresses in cells of the central dermomyotome	BAT positive	[114, 144]
	myf5-Cre;R26R-eYFP	Knock-in	Described above	BAT positive	[116, 117]
	pax7-CreERT2; R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	Pax7 is expressed in medial and central cells of the dermomyotome and in adult satellite cells	BAT positive	[121, 122]
	pax3-cre;R26R-mTmG	Knock-in	Described above	All adipogenic cells from the SVF of BAT positive	[123, 124]
	myf5-Cre;R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	Described above	BAT positive; >99% of adipogenic BAT SVF cells positive	[83, 117]
	myf5-Cre;R26R-eYFP	Knock-in	Described above	>95% of BAT adipocyte precursors positive	[83, 117]
	VE-cadherin- Cre;R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	Described above	BAT positive	[96, 98]
	VE-cadherin-CreERT2; R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	Described above	Many brown adipocytes positive	[97, 98]
Brite adipocytes	myf5-Cre;R26R-eYFP	Knock-in	Described above	Brite adipocytes in ingWAT negative	[116, 117]
	PDGFRα-CreERT2; R26R-tdTomato	Knock-in	PDGFRα-CreERT2 is a tamoxifen-inducible version of the PDGFRα-CreER	90% of the CL316,243 induced brite adipocytes in pgWAT positive	[50, 145]
	myf5-Cre;R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	Described above	CL316,243 induced brite adipocytes in asWATs and rWAT positive; brite adipocytes induced in ingWAT negative	[83, 117]
	VE-cadherin-CreERT2; R26R-LacZ	Knock-in	Described above	Rosiglitazone induced bright adipocytes in ingWAT positive	[97, 98]
	UCP1-CreERT2; R26R-tdRFP	Knock-in	UCP1 is the most accepted functional marker of brown adipocytes	Brite and white adipocytes interconverts in ingWAT depending on the temperature	[51]
Adipocyte precursors in skeletal muscle	myf5-Cre;R26R-eYFP	Knock-in	Described above	negative	[84, 117]
	myf5-Cre;R26R-eYFP	Knock-in	Described above	negative	[37, 117]
	myf5-Cre;R26R-mTmG	Knock-in	Described above	negative	[117, 124]
	Pax3-Cre; R26R- mTmG	Knock-in	Described above	negative	[123, 124]

R26R: Rosa26 reporter.

tTA: tetracycline transactivator.

TRE: tetracycline response element.

SVF: stromal vascular fraction.