Exons 4 and 5 were flanked by loxP sites via homologous recombination. The Frt flanked neo cassette was removed by Flp recombinase in the ES cells. After Cre mediated recombination RT-PCR confirmed absence of these exons from transcripts in mutants and Western blot analysis failed to detect protein from recombined embryos. This allele was generated from Ofd1tm2.1Bfra (J:106035)