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. 2018 Sep 17;115(40):E9489–E9498. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1802237115

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

Characterization of viral POMC-ChR2 mice. (A) Schematic of the Cre-dependent AAV. The ChR2-eYFP gene is doubly flanked by two sets of incompatible lox sites. Upon delivery into POMC-Cre transgenic mouse line, ChR2-eYFP is inverted to enable transcription from the EF-1α promoter. (B) Representative images showing cell-specific ChR2-eYFP expression (green) in POMC neurons (red) in the Arc of the hypothalamus. (Scale bar, 50 µm.) (C) Statistics of expression in POMC neurons (n = 6 mice, 894 POMC neurons, 738 ChR2-eYFP neurons). Eighty percent of POMC neurons expressed in ChR2-eYFP neurons; 93% of ChR2-eYFP neurons expressed in POMC neurons. Mean ± SEM. (D) Blue light illumination of the Arc led to induction of cFos (red) in ChR2-eYFP-positive neurons (green). (Scale bar, 20 µm.) (E) Statistics of cFos-positive neurons in ChR2-eYFP expressing cells at implant region of the Arc with or without optic stimulation. Six percent of cFos-positive neurons expressed in ChR2-eYFP neurons in the no-optic stimulation group (n = 3 mice, 55 cFos-positive neurons, 410 ChR2-eYFP neurons) versus 77% in light-stimulation group (n = 5 mice, 538 cFos-positive neurons, 554 ChR2-eYFP neurons). Unpaired two-tailed t test: t(6) = 11.77, ****P < 0.0001. Mean ± SEM.