This strain was established by injecting Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) to F344/Stm pronuclear stage embryos. Selected ZFNs were designed to target exon 1 of rat Nppc, which encodes the N-terminus of natriuretic peptide precursor C
(target sequence: CGAAGCCAAGCCCGGGACaccaccGAAGGTGGGTGCTGTCGCG; nucleotides 179 - 221, NC_005108.4). The injected F344/Stm embryos were transferred into the oviducts of pseudopregnant rats. Four lines of knockout strains were estaglished. This F344-Nppcem2Kyo strain ( delta 9) was deduced to generate one amino-acid substitution (a.a. 26, from Gly to Ala, NP_446202, at nucleotides 192 - 194,
NM_053750.1) and a three amino-acid deletion (a.a. 27 - 29, Thr, Pro and Pro, NP_446202, at nucleotides 193 - 201, NM_053750.1), within the N-terminal portion of the full-length Nppc