Table 2  Summary of the metabolic phenotypes of germline CART knockout mouse models in various studies when compared with wild-type controls.
Schematic representation of the gene targeting strategies adopted for generating CART knockout mouse models, depicting the wild-type allele of the mouse CART gene, the CART targeting vector, and the mutant CART allele. The three exons of the mouse CART gene are indicated by boxes labeled E1–E3. In the targeting constructs, the yellow boxes labeled “neo” or “HIS/neo” indicate the neomycin or histidinol/neomycin resistance selection cassettes respectively for targeted disruption of the CART gene. Homologous recombination between the targeting vectors and the complementary CART genomic loci (dotted lines) in mouse embryonic stem cells generates genetic ablations of exons E1 and E2, or all of exons E1–E3 of the CART coding region respectively. The targeting constructs were introduced into 129 SvJ mouse embryonic stem cells and subsequently injected into C57BL/6 blastocysts. M, male; F, female; HFD, high fat diet; NSD, no significant difference.