What does Ercc1-/- / DAT-Cre+ mean?
Ercc1-/-DAT-Cre means the mice with Cre recombinase mediated conditional knockout of Ercc1 in the DA neurons. DAT-Cre is the mouse strain that expresses Cre recombinase from the promoter of Dopamine transporter.


  Cre-recombinase:loxP (Cre-loxP) system was used to generate mutants
  with targeted deletion in dopamine transporter (DAT)-expressing
  neurons. Specificity of Cre recombinase activity was validated using a
  lacZ reporter that confirmed expression in DA neurons of the SNpc and
  not in other cell types, such as serotonergic neurons of the Raphe
  nucleus (Figure S1).


From supplementary information:


  Conditional mutants were generated using the Cre-recombinase:loxP
  (Cre-loxP) system and crossing a strain carrying an Ercc1 allele
  flanked by loxP sites (Ercc1fl/fl), with a strain expressing the Cre
  recombinase under the control of the specific Dopamine Transporter
  (DAT) promoter (Zhuang et al., 2005). We validated the specificity of
  Cre recombinase activity by generating DAT-Cre+ROSA26-lacZ reporter
  (Soriano, 1999), which confirmed expression in DA neurons of the SNpc
  and not in other cell types, such as serotonergic neurons of the Raphe
  nucleus (Supp. fig. 1)