Genomic actions of the androgen receptor are required for normal male sexual differentiation in a mouse model

Abstract

Androgens mediate their effects in target cells via the androgen receptor (AR), which acts predominantly as a ligand-dependent transcription factor. In addition, androgens induce rapid activation of second messenger signal transduction cascades, and this is thought to occur via non-genomic mechanisms. We have used the Cre/loxP system to generate an AR knockout (ARKO) mouse targeting exon 3, which encodes the second zinc finger of the DNA-binding domain. To generate universal ARKO mice, floxed AR mice were mated with CMV-Cre mice, which express Cre recombinase ubiquitously. Deletion of the floxed allele in our mice does not disrupt the reading frame, and has been designed so that the mutant A..