A Quantitative Evaluation of a 2.5 kb Rat Tyrosine Hydroxylase Promoter to Target Expression in Ventral Mesencephalic Dopamine Neurons In Vivo

Highlights • AAV vectors with specific promoters for neuron phenotypes are powerful tools in neuroscience, particularly in optogenetics. • Midbrain dopamine neurons have great interest because they play a central role in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease. • To facilitate their study we analyzed specificity and efficiency of a 2.5 kb sequence of rat tyrosine hydroxylase promoter. • Regional specificity was good, as no expression was seen in striatum or cortex, but cellular specificity in SN was only 50% • This promoter has utility in the study of dopaminergic neurons, but incomplete specificity necessitates caution in its use.