Fig. 1.
Expression levels of ChR2R-eYFP in adult Bhlhb5-ChR2R-eYFP mice. A: conditional expression of ChR2R-eYFP in spiral ganglion neurons (SGNs) is achieved by crossing Bhlhb5Cre/+ mice with ChR2R-eYFP mice. Open reading frames are indicated by the blue box (the recombinase, Cre) and the green box (ChR2R fusion with enhanced yellow fluorescent protein, ChR2R-eYFP). LoxP sites are indicated by the black triangles. B: central cochlear explants from littermates visualized by fluorescence. The control (Ctrl) is the ChR2R-eYFP+/fl mouse, and heterozygous (Hetero) and homozygous (Homo) represent Bhlhb5+/Cre; ChR2R-eYFP +/fl and Bhlhb5+/Cre; ChR2R-eYFPfl/fl, respectively. C: an example of a genotyping gel. D: immunoblot analysis of ChR2R-eYFP from control, heterozygous, and homozygous cochlear explants. Tissue analyzed was from the modiolus (cochlear nerve trunk and spiral ganglion). Blots were also probed with an HSC70-specific antibody as a loading reference. E: quantification of the immunoblots. Error bars represent standard error of the mean. ***P < 0.005. The number of cochlear explants is 5 in each group. The y-axis is the percentage of expression relative to the homozygote.