Strains, stocks and mutant mice.

The aim of this chapter is to provide the reader with an introduction to the various types of mouse strains and stocks commonly used in research today. This chapter outlines how these mice were generally created and maintained, describes their primary use in research and briefly discusses the advantages and shortcomings of each. In addition, the standardized nomenclature for each set of stocks and strains is briefly discussed. The complete rules set forth by the International Committee on Standardized Genetic Nomenclature for Mice are available on the internet through Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) ( http://www.informatics.jax.org ). This chapter also summarizes information on commonly used resources that are exceptionally handy when working in mouse genetics, including databases with biological data, handbooks for husbandry and information on how to find and obtain the mice needed for your research.