Tumour Suppressor Hic1 - Novel Inhibitor of Wnt Signalling : On generating gene targeted (Hic1 conditional knock-out and Hic1-reporter) mouse strains

Hypermethylated In Cancer 1 (HIC1) gene was identified as a potential tumour suppressor but its physiological role has remained enigmatic. This work (master thesis) provides insights into the biological relevance of HIC1 not only in the context of Wnt signalling. The book contains summary of data on the Wnt signalling pathway and HIC1 available in the literature (current of April 2008) and very broad yet consistent set of laboratory approaches and detailed manuals. These methods can be very helpful to students interested in molecular biology. The whole work is followed by thorough discussion of the presented results. Most interestingly, one chapter of the book describes detailed strategy for generating gene targeted mouse. This is exemplified by production of two strains: (1) a strain for conditional inactivation of Hic1 gene using Cre/loxP system and (2) so-called reporter mouse strain that expresses the fluorescent protein from endogenous Hic1 promoter. A separate file containing the author's lecture 'Generation of conditional knock-out mouse step by step' is included to provide a comprehensive overview of the research method that has pervaded all fields of contemporary biology.