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Please refer to the "Detail" section of the strain datasheet. The way the strain was made will be in the Development section. The background information can also sometimes be clarified by viewing "Control Suggestions."
Additionally, the nomenclature may offer some clues:
Click here for more information on nomenclature
Click here for a tutorial on nomenclature
See Considerations for Choosing Controls and Controls for Genetically Engineered Mice for this information.
This can be a challenging situation. You could:
An inbred strain is one that:
An outbred mouse stock is a closed population (for at least four generations) of genetically variable animals that is bred to maintain maximum heterozygosity.
An inbred mouse has more genetic uniformity than an outbred mouse.
The following definition comes from the online book "Mouse Genetics" by Lee Silver (1995):
"The constant tendency of genes to evolve even in the absence of selective forces. Genetic drift is fueled by spontaneous neutral mutations that disappear or become fixed in a population at random."
This includes a variety of possible mutations including single base changes, deletions, duplications, or inversions in the DNA.
Detection of genetic drift requires comparison of whole genome sequence data; this is typically not a cost-effective option for most labs. Drift cannot be detected using Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) scans.
Many times drift is detected through the observation of phenotypic differences; however, often drift does not produce a visible or detectable phenotype and may go undetected.
Genetic drift is a spontaneous biological process that cannot be stopped. The potential deleterious impacts of drift on research can be minimized through the following practices:
A substrain is a strain that
Genetic drift is an issue with mutant mouse strains. Refreshing your colony by backcrossing for a couple of generations to the parent inbred strain, or ordering new breeders from the vendor, can reduce the number of spontaneous mutations that may have accumulated.
Genetic Stability Program (GSP) Whitepaper
Learn strategies to minimize genetic drift and maximize experimental repoducibility in mouse research