Transgenic mice

All mice were bred and housed at the SA Pathology Animal Care Facility and all studies performed with Institutional Ethics approval (SA Pathology/CALHN, #102/12) and were performed in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Conditional knockout mice in which Rptor, a unique and essential component of mTORC1, was disrupted in early osteoprogenitor cells were generated using Osx1-GFP::Cre mice²³, R26eYFP mice²⁵ and Rptor^fl/fl mice²⁴ as previously described²⁰. In all studies, Osx1-GFP::Cre (designated eYFP-Osx:Cre) mice were used as controls. Heterozygous (Osx1-GFP::Cre-Rosa26eYFP-Rptor^+/fl, designated eYFP-Rptor_ob^+/−) and homozygous (Osx1-GFP::Cre-Rosa26eYFP-Rptor^fl/fl, designated eYFP-Rptor_ob^−/−) knockout mice were born at the expected Mendelian frequencies and at birth, no gross phenotypic differences or difference in weight or length was evident in knockout animals, relative to age-matched eYFP-Osx:Cre controls²⁰. For all studies, equal numbers of male and female mice were used in each group.