What Is A Mouse Strain?

C57BL/6 and BALB/c

are the main mouse strains. Sprague-Dawley and Wistar are the main rat strains. The Jackson Laboratory, Charles River Laboratories, Taconic Biosciences, and Harlan Laboratories are the main suppliers. Major research applications are in immunology, oncology, physiology, pathology, and neuroscience.

What is an inbred mouse strain?

Inbred mouse strains are defined as

colonies produced by a minimum of 20 generations of brother-sister mating

, traceable to a single founding pair.

What does mouse strain mean?

The name of a mouse strain

reflects the unique phenotypic and genetic characteristics of widely used laboratory mice

. The nomenclature of a strain may have punctuation marks, italics, superscripts, and various symbols – all of which mean something.

Why is mouse used in lab?

Mice are cost effective because

they are cheap and easy to look after

. … Research in mice provides insights into the genetic risk factors for these diseases in the human population. It is relatively easy to manipulate the mouse genome, for example, adding or removing a gene to better understand its role in the body.

How do you write a genotype for a mouse?

For spontaneously or targeted mutant mice, this notation makes perfect sense: “

+”

indicates the wildtype allele, and “-” the mutant allele. Thus, we designate our mouse genotypes “-/-” for homozygous mutants, “+/-” for heterozygotes, and “+/+” for wildtypes.

How do you read a mouse strain?

Congenic strains are designated by a compound symbol consisting of the host strain (usually abbreviated), a period, the donor strain (also usually abbreviated), a hyphen, and the italicized symbol of the differential locus or loci and allele(s) (e.g., B10. 129P-H12

^b

).

Can mice be inbred?

Mice

have been inbred to reduce genetic variance for over a 100 years

, and each generation of inbreeding is expected to lead to a decrease in heterozygosity (Wright 1921; Silver 1995).

How can you tell if someone is inbred?

1. Reduced fertility both in litter size and sperm viability.
2. Increased genetic disorders.
3. Fluctuating facial asymmetry.
4. Lower birth rate.
5. Higher infant mortality and child mortality.
6. Smaller adult size.

What happens if mice inbreed?

The most important practical consequence of inbreeding is that

there should be virtually no genetic segregation within the strain

and, as such, every mouse is essentially a genetically identical clone of its parents and siblings, allowing for the perpetual propagation of genetically identical animals.

What is the difference between inbred and outbred mice strain?

Genetically, there are two major classes of laboratory mice: inbred and outbred. Inbred mice are genetically homogeneous and

there is very little variation or heterogeneity within a pure inbred strain

. … Outbred mice are bred specifically to maximize genetic diversity and heterozygosity within a population.

Are mice good for anything?

Mice are keystone species in almost every ecosystem. In forests, fields, and deserts, mice

represent food to predators of all sizes

. They link plants and predators in every terrestrial ecosystem. Weasels, foxes, coyotes, hawks, owls, skunks, shrews, bobcats, and bears all eat mice.

What is the lifespan of the lab mouse?

What is a Flox mice?

Htt flox/flox mice – these mice have

two loxP sites inserted

so they border from both sides Htt gene (or usually just the most important exon), loxP sites are 48 bp long DNA sequences recognized by Cre recombinase from bacteriophage P1 of E. coli.

Are dormice mice?

The first surprise is that they are not mice at all, although they are rodents. … There are two sorts of dormice you might come across – the edible dormouse (Glis glis) and the native dormouse, sometimes called the hazel dormouse and technically known as Muscardinus avellanarius.

Why does my hand hurt after using my mouse?

Carpal tunnel is a progressive and painful condition that affects at least five million Americans. It occurs as a result of

stressing and straining the fingers and hand —

yes, like using the mouse a lot. Whenever you perform rapid and forceful hand movements for a long time, wrist flexor tendons tend to react badly.