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This study describes the generation of knock-in mouse lines that express optogenetic activators or silencers in a CRE recombinase–dependent manner, and demonstrates the reliability and utility of these tools with in vivo and ex vivo light-induced activation and silencing of neuronal activity.
Using several lines of retinal cell type–specific GENSET BAC transgenic GFP mice, the authors segregated these retinal cell types then subjected them to transcriptome microarray analysis to provide a transcriptional 'barcode' of retinal cell identity.