Lineage Tracing in the Mammary Gland Using Cre/lox Technology and Fluorescent Reporter Alleles

Lineage tracing using Cre/lox technology has become a well-established technique to study the contribution of different (stem) cell populations to organ development and function. When used in the mammary gland, it forms a valuable addition to the already existing experimental toolbox and an important alternative to other readouts measuring stem cell potential, such as the fat pad transplantation assay.Here I describe how to set up and analyze an in vivo lineage tracing experiment using tamoxifen-inducible Cre/lox technology, highlighting the specific challenges that the investigator faces when employing this method and interpreting the results in the mammary gland.