Exchange reaction of a Tag & Exchange targeting scheme 4 bp alteration without introduction of marker gene or loxP or frt sites. To produce this ko allele, the Hprt minigene in the tagged Fgf2 ko allele (Zhou et al, Nature Medicine, 4:201, 1998) was "exchanged" by gene targeting with a mutant exon 1 with the sequence CTGCAG replacing the wild-type CCATGC. The mutant sequence encodes an alanine GCA in place of the methionine ATG translational start site of the 18-kDa low molecular weight isoform. The adjacent upstream wobble base was also changed from C to T so that the composite of these three base changes generated a PstI site that is diagnostic for the exchanged allele. Cells with the exchanged allele were selected for the loss of HPRT function using 5 mg/mL 6-thioguanine. There are no LoxP, Frt or marker gene sequences in this new allele.