The methods and compositions of the present invention find use in altering cardiac-preferred expression in transgenic animals. The compositions of the invention include isolated nucleic acid molecules, expression cassettes, animal cells, transgenic animals, and transgenic mice. The transgenic animals of the invention exhibit inducible cardiac preferred expression of a nucleotide sequence of interest. The methods allow generation of transgenic animals with altered cardiac preferred expression of the nucleotide sequence of interest. In particular, the invention provides a method for altering the susceptibility of a transgenic animal to cardiopathy. A transgenic animal of the invention finds use in identifying anti-cardiopathic compounds.