Fig. 2. Distinguishing features of the Myh11-CreER^T2 mouse.

a, Tamoxifen-independent recombination activity in 10-week-old male Myh11-CreER^T2 tissues. Arrowheads point to SMCs with leaky activity. Images of aorta and bladder replicated in two additional animals from two independent labs; images of esophagus and intestine replicated in one independent experiment. b, Western blot of CreER^T2 protein from 8-week-old male mice from each CreER^T2 driver (n=3 mice per genotype). Units of measure for molecular weight markers here and in all subsequent blots is in kilodaltons. p values determined by one-way ANOVA with Tukey’s Student’s t-test. c, qPCR of Myh11-CreER^T2 transgene from adult spleen (n=5 wild type and Myh11-CreER^T2 mice; n=2 Itga8-CreER^T2 mice). Two primer pairs (PCR 1 and PCR 2) used that amplify non-overlapping sequences in ER^T2. d, Long read sequence mapping of approximate site-of-integration for Myh11-CreER^T2 transgene (large triangle). Dashed lines represent initial translocation of the Myh11-CreER^T2 transgene from X chromosome (top) carrying X-linked genes surrounding the Myh11-CreER^T2 transgene (middle) to Y chromosome (bottom). Bent arrows indicate transcription start sites of each gene. Scale bar is an approximation. PAR, pseudoautosomal region. e, Bulk RNA-seq summary of differentially expressed genes in the absence of tamoxifen in 8-week-old male mice (n=3 mice per genotype). Group 1 represents significantly elevated genes in Myh11-CreER^T2 aorta versus Itga8-CreER^T2 and wild type; Group 2 represents significantly elevated genes in wild type aorta; Group 3 represents significantly elevated genes in Itga8-CreER^T2 aorta. A list of differentially expressed genes is provided in Supplementary Table 2. Values for box whisker plots can be found in the source data file.