Table 1 Lineage-traced mouse tools for epithelial specific mouse lines

Shh^Cre [19, 71, 82]

endodermal epithelial marker

Scgb1a1⁺ club epithelial cells in the proximal airway, with scattered expression in ciliated epithelium and Sftpc⁺ alveolar type II epithelial cells [82]

Sox9^CreER [83] and Sox9^cre/+ [84]

distal airway epithelial cells

Sox9 lineage cells can give rise to ATI and ATII cells after E13.5

Sox2^CreER [18, 19]

proximal airway lung epithelial cells

the majority of Sox2 lineage alveolar cells exhibited ATII marker Sftpc expression; Sox2 lineage labeled airway epithelial cells are basal, secretory, and ciliated epithelial cells in the airway of adult lung, but not alveolar cells [44]

Nkx2.1^CreER [71]

both distal alveolar and proximal airway epithelial cells

Nkx2.1 lineage labeled cells were strictly epithelial cells, which co-stained with pan-epithelial marker EPCAM [85]

Upk3a^CreER [17]

lineage labeled cells are progenitors that give rise to club cells and ciliated cells in the postnatal period

Adult Upk3a lineage labeled cells were distributed in the airway, clustered around neuroepithelial bodies (NEBs) and located close to BADJs

Igfbp2^CreER [9]

ATI cells after postnatal day 1 (p1)

In this study, 95% of the Hopx⁺ ATI cells express Igfbp2 at p60. Hopx⁺Igfbp2⁺ cells are proposed to represent terminal differentiated populations of ATI cells

Sftpc^DreER [6, 7]

lineage label BASCs

Tamoxifen exposure will enable recombination of Dre and Cre, which results in labeling of Sftpc⁺/Scgb1a1⁺ BASCs. Dre and Cre mouse lines were used by cross with R26-RSR-LSL-tdTomato [6], R26-comfetti2 [86], and R26-TLR [7] reporter mouse lines