Inbred or Outbred? Genetic Diversity in Laboratory Rodent Colonies.

ABSTRACT: Nonmodel rodents are widely used as subjects for both basic and applied biological research, but the genetic diversity of the study individuals is rarely quantified. University-housed colonies tend to be small and subject to founder effects and genetic drift; so they may be highly inbred or show substantial genetic divergence from other colonies, even those derived from the same source. Disregard for the levels of genetic diversity in an animal colony may result in a failure to replicate results if a different colony is used to repeat an experiment, as different colonies may have fixed alternative variants. Here we use high throughput sequencing to demonstrate genetic divergence in three isolated colonies of Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) even though they were all establis

SUBMITTER: Brekke TD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5919727 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature