• Background strain: C57BL/6

Availability: Live colony
Zygosity genotype: Homozygous

Tmprss2 is a transmembrane serine protease that is involved in viral infection. Both influenza viruses and human coronaviruses, including HCoV-229E, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and SARS-CoV-2, depend on Tmprss2 proteolytically cleaving (i.e., priming) the viral spike glycoprotein, which triggers fusion of the viral envelope and host cell membrane, allowing the virus to enter the cell. Tmprss2 also has a pivotal role in the development and progression of prostate cancer. The fusion of the TMPRSS2 gene with the ERG oncogene is the most frequent genomic alteration in prostate cancer.

The hTmprss2 KI mouse model was generated using CRISPR-based technology to mediate the integration of a codon optimized human TMPRSS2 cDNA expression cassette into the mouse Tmprss2 gene locus. As a result, the mouse Tmprss2 gene promoter and other regulatory elements will drive the human Tmprss2 protein expression whereas the mouse Tmprss2 gene expression will be terminated.