Mice hemizygous for the K14-Cre transgene are viable, fertile, normal in size and do not display any gross physical or behavioral abnormalities. These transgenic mice express Cre recombinase under the control of the human keratin 14 promoter. Cre transcript is detected in the skin. When crossed to a reporter line containing Gt(ROSA)26Sortm1Sor, Beta-galactosidase activity is detected in the oral ectoderm at 11.75 dpc, and at 14.5 dpc activity is detected in the skin and throughout the dental epithelium. This strain represents an effective tool for generating tissue-specific targeted mutants that would be useful to study developmentally critical gene function in the ectoderm and its derivatives. The Jackson Laboratory 2024, used with permission.