The CRE DD Green Reporter System is designed to monitor cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) activity in mammalian cells, with minimal background signal. It includes the pCRE-DD-ZsGreen1 Reporter vector and Shield1.
pCRE-DD-ZsGreen1 encodes a green fluorescent protein reporter tagged at its N-terminus with the ProteoTuner destabilization domain (DD), and under the control of the CRE promoter. The DD causes the DD-ZsGreen1 reporter to be rapidly targeted to and degraded by proteasomes. This minimizes background fluorescence from leaky promoters prior to promoter activation.
To monitor CREB activity, a candidate inducer is added to the medium simultaneously with the DD’s stabilizing ligand, Shield1. This allows DD-ZsGreen1 to accumulate in response to CREB activation. As a result, only the reporter molecules expressed during CRE induction contribute to the fluorescence signal. This system provides a considerably higher signal-to-noise ratio than can be obtained with non-destabilized or constitutively destabilized reporter systems.


