Mind your mouse strain

José Antonio Enríquez
 
https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-018-0018-3

• Many commonly used inbred mouse strains carry random mutations which can affect the interpretation of results derived from these strains
• Mice of a single strain is still susceptible to random genetic drift. Whilst some animal providers have implemented a genetic stability program, this is not common practice across all animal facilities in research institutions
• The most commonly used lab strain is BL6. There are two prominent mutations which are likely present in all substrains (Cdh23, causing age-related hearing loss, and COX7A2L which involves mitochondrial supercomplex formation). 
• It is important to be aware of the nuclear genetic differences between substrains because they can result in different molecular and phenotypic signatures.
• Correct reporting of animal substrains may go some way towards explaining contradictory observations between laboratories when they occur