Mouse News Letter

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Mouse News Letter (MNL) was a bulletin of mouse genetics information published from 1949 to 1998. In 1990 Mouse News Letter changed its name to Mouse Genome which merged with the journal Mammalian Genome in 1998. Mouse News Letter now exists as a company, Mouse News Letter Ltd, which promotes the science of Genetics and provides funds to enable younger scientists to attend Genetics Conferences. “To survey the history of the Mouse News Letter is to see the history of mouse genetics unfold.” So wrote Mary F Lyon in 1997. [1]

Contents

Origins

At the Eighth International Genetics Congress in 1948 eminent geneticists Douglas Falconer, R.A.Fisher, Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch, Hans Grüneberg and Paula Hertwig agreed that investigators working on mouse genetics and development needed a regular information bulletin. Hence, the first issue of Mouse News Letter edited by L.C.Dunn and Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch was published in June 1949. [2] [3] [4] It comprised lists of inbred strains, mutant stocks and new mutants. Toby Carter, who had been one of R.A. Fisher's students, took over as editor until 1956. The Mouse News Letter logo, a circular mouse emblem, first appeared on the cover of the third issue reaching its final form in Mouse News Letter number 4.

Mouse News Letter as an informal bulletin


Although Mouse News Letter became more sophisticated over the years, many of the basic elements seen in the first issues were retained throughout. These included lists and maps of mouse genes and mutants, information on inbred strains, and brief reports of useful results that did not merit a full paper. The first gene list appeared in 1951, containing only 125 genes. The first linkage map, comprising 15 “linkage groups” with 58 loci was published in MNL in 1953. The database underlying the linkage map was maintained for many years by Margaret Green [5] and subsequently by Muriel Davisson and Tom Roderick and colleagues. [6] On behalf of the Committee for Standardised Genetic Nomenclature for Mice, [7] [8] [9] nomenclature rules for naming mouse genes and mouse strains were published. MNL was issued twice a year and was free until 1972 when subscription fees were introduced. Lists of inbred strains appeared from very early days but between 1958 and 1984 were issued as a separate entity “Inbred Strains of Mice” every two years as a supplement. MNL was edited by Mary Lyon from 1956-1972 and then by Tony Searle until 1982.

In 1986, during Jo Peters’ time as editor, MNL became a formal publication of genetic information published by Oxford University Press. Then, for the first time, contributions could be quoted without seeking permission from the author. The Nomenclature Committee formed the Editorial Board. The number of issues per year increased from two to three with the third one being an “Inbred Strains” issue edited by Michael Festing. This replaced Inbred Strains of Mice. The journal was run by a company Mouse News Letter Ltd, limited by guarantee and with charitable status. Over the years, with the inexorable increase in genetic information, MNL also grew and the size and variety of lists and maps published increased greatly. In keeping with the then new field of recombinant DNA work, lists of restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) and probes and clones were included. [10] The new maps ranged from a Mouse Chromosome Atlas [11] that showed man-mouse homologies and correspondence between the genetic and G-band maps and replaced the previous linkage map, to maps of man-mouse homologies, [12] cancer-related genes, [13] the Genetic Imprinting map (http://mousebook.org), the chromosome aberration map, [14] [15] [16] and a probe/clone map.

Mouse Genome and Mammalian Genome

In February 1990 Mouse News Letter changed its name to Mouse Genome. In addition to the lists, maps and unrefereed contributions, short refereed papers were published. Starting in 1991 Mouse Genome was published four times a year as one volume with four issues. As before, each issue had a theme and contained contributions and short papers. The first issue of the year was a “Maps” issue, the second issue was a “Genes“ issue, the third issue was “Inbred Strains” and the fourth issue was a DNA probes and Restriction fragment length polymorphism issue.

During the 1990s it became clear with the exponential increase in knowledge that the long-term future of mouse genetics information was an electronic one. In 1998 Mouse Genome, the official journal of the International Committee for Standardized Genetic Nomenclature for Mice, merged with Mammalian Genome the official journal of the International Mammalian Genome Society. [17] The merged journal kept the name Mammalian Genome and includes the words “Incorporating Mouse Genome” on its front cover. Information contained in the lists and maps is available from the Jackson Laboratory (http://www.jax.org) and MRC Harwell (http://mousebook.org).

Mouse News Letter since 1998

Mouse News Letter continues to exist as a company Mouse News Letter Ltd, limited by guarantee and with charitable status. Its purpose is “To promote the advancement of knowledge in the science of genetics for the benefit of the public”. It receives an income from Mammalian Genome to which it sold its publishing assets. It uses this income to provide funds to enable younger scientists to attend Mouse Genetics Conferences.

Mouse News Letter archive

For a complete archive of Mouse News Letter the MRC Harwell website see (https://www.har.mrc.ac.uk/about-harwell/history/)

Editors

1949 LC Dunn and Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch, 1950-1956 Toby Carter, 1956-1970 Mary Lyon, 1970-1982 Tony Searle, 1982-1997 Jo Peters, 1986 -1997 Michael Festing for the Inbred Strains issue, 1991-1997 Steve Brown for the Maps issue

Related Research Articles

Inbred strains are individuals of a particular species which are nearly identical to each other in genotype due to long inbreeding. A strain is inbred when it has undergone at least 20 generations of brother x sister or offspring x parent mating, at which point at least 98.6% of the loci in an individual of the strain will be homozygous, and each individual can be treated effectively as clones. Some inbred strains have been bred for over 150 generations, leaving individuals in the population to be isogenic in nature. Inbred strains of animals are frequently used in laboratories for experiments where for the reproducibility of conclusions all the test animals should be as similar as possible. However, for some experiments, genetic diversity in the test population may be desired. Thus outbred strains of most laboratory animals are also available, where an outbred strain is a strain of an organism that is effectively wildtype in nature, where there is as little inbreeding as possible.

Heterosis, hybrid vigor, or outbreeding enhancement is the improved or increased function of any biological quality in a hybrid offspring. An offspring is heterotic if its traits are enhanced as a result of mixing the genetic contributions of its parents. These effects can be due to Mendelian or non-Mendelian inheritance.

Backcrossing is a crossing of a hybrid with one of its parents or an individual genetically similar to its parent, to achieve offspring with a genetic identity closer to that of the parent. It is used in horticulture, animal breeding, and production of gene knockout organisms.

Laboratory mouse Laboratory mice

The laboratory mouse or lab mouse is a small mammal of the order Rodentia which is bred and used for scientific research or feeders for certain pets. Laboratory mice are usually of the species Mus musculus. They are the most commonly used mammalian research model and are used for research in genetics, psychology, medicine and other scientific disciplines. Mice belong to the Euarchontoglires clade, which includes humans. This close relationship, the associated high homology with humans, their ease of maintenance and handling, and their high reproduction rate, make mice particularly suitable models for human-oriented research. The laboratory mouse genome has been sequenced and many mouse genes have human homologues.

In biology, a strain is a genetic variant, a subtype or a culture within a biological species. Strains are often seen as inherently artificial concepts, characterized by a specific intent for genetic isolation. This is most easily observed in microbiology where strains are derived from a single cell colony and are typically quarantined by the physical constraints of a Petri dish. Strains are also commonly referred to within virology, botany, and with rodents used in experimental studies.

Mary F. Lyon English geneticist

Mary Frances Lyon was an English geneticist best known for her discovery of X-chromosome inactivation, an important biological phenomenon.

Genetics, a discipline of biology, is the science of heredity and variation in living organisms.

Rat Genome Database

The Rat Genome Database (RGD) is a database of rat genomics, genetics, physiology and functional data, as well as data for comparative genomics between rat, human and mouse. RGD is responsible for attaching biological information to the rat genome via structured vocabulary, or ontology, annotations assigned to genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL), and for consolidating rat strain data and making it available to the research community. They are also developing a suite of tools for mining and analyzing genomic, physiologic and functional data for the rat, and comparative data for rat, mouse, human, and five other species.

Laboratory rat Inbred strains of Rattus norvegicus used for scientific research

A laboratory rat or lab rat is a brown rat of the subspecies Rattus norvegicus domestica which is bred and kept for scientific research. While less commonly used for research than mice, rats have served as an important animal model for research in psychology and biomedical science.

Jackson Laboratory

The Jackson Laboratory is an independent, nonprofit biomedical research institution. It employs more than 2,100 employees in Bar Harbor, Maine; Sacramento, California; and at a genomic medicine institute in Farmington, Connecticut. The institution is a National Cancer Institute-designated Cancer Center and has NIH Centers of Excellence in aging and systems genetics.

Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch German-born US developmental geneticist (1907-2007)

Salome Gluecksohn-Waelsch was a German-born U.S. geneticist and co-founder of the field of developmental genetics, which investigates the genetic mechanisms of development.

C57BL/6

C57BL/6, often referred to as "C57 black 6", "C57" or "black 6", is a common inbred strain of laboratory mouse.

Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) is a free, online database and bioinformatics resource hosted by The Jackson Laboratory, with funding by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). MGI provides access to data on the genetics, genomics and biology of the laboratory mouse to facilitate the study of human health and disease. The database integrates multiple projects, with the two largest contributions coming from the Mouse Genome Database and Mouse Gene Expression Database (GXD). As of 2018, MGI contains data curated from over 230,000 publications.

Neurogenetics

Neurogenetics studies the role of genetics in the development and function of the nervous system. It considers neural characteristics as phenotypes, and is mainly based on the observation that the nervous systems of individuals, even of those belonging to the same species, may not be identical. As the name implies, it draws aspects from both the studies of neuroscience and genetics, focusing in particular how the genetic code an organism carries affects its expressed traits. Mutations in this genetic sequence can have a wide range of effects on the quality of life of the individual. Neurological diseases, behavior and personality are all studied in the context of neurogenetics. The field of neurogenetics emerged in the mid to late 20th century with advances closely following advancements made in available technology. Currently, neurogenetics is the center of much research utilizing cutting edge techniques.

A recombinant inbred strain is an organism with chromosomes that incorporate an essentially permanent set of recombination events between chromosomes inherited from two or more inbred strains. F1 and F2 generations are produced by intercrossing the inbred strains; pairs of the F2 progeny are then mated to establish inbred strains through long-term inbreeding.

Stephen D. M. Brown

Steve David Macleod Brown is director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Mammalian Genetics Unit, MRC Harwell at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Oxfordshire, a research centre on mouse genetics. In addition, he leads the Genetics and Pathobiology of Deafness research group.

Coisogenic strains are one type of inbred strain that differs by a mutation at a single locus and all of the other loci are identical. There are numerous ways to create an inbred strain and each of these strains are unique. Genetically engineered mice can be considered a coisogenic strain if the only difference between the engineered mouse and a wild-type mouse is a specific locus. Coisogenic strains can be used to investigate the function of a certain genetic locus.

Mouse Models of Human Cancer database

The laboratory mouse has been instrumental in investigating the genetics of human disease, including cancer, for over 110 years. The laboratory mouse has physiology and genetic characteristics very similar to humans providing powerful models for investigation of the genetic characteristics of disease.

The Japanese house mouse or Japanese wild mouse is a type of house mouse that originated in Japan. Genetically, it is a hybrid between the southeastern Asian house mouse and the eastern European house mouse. It is thus not a unique subspecies, but is treated as such for its characteristic features. It is among the smallest house mice. Different strains such as MSM/Ms, JF1, Japanese waltzing mouse, C57BL/6J and MSKR exist following cross breeding with other house mice, and are used in different genetic and medical investigations.

Tara Matise is an American geneticist who is head of the Laboratory of Computational Genetics at Rutgers University. Her research considers human genetics, data sciences and bioinformation. She serves as director of the National Human Genome Research Institute Genome Sequencing Program, which looks to identify genes that underlie inherited human disease.

References

  1. ↑ Lyon, MF. (1997). A Life Story of Mouse News Letter and Mouse Genome. Mouse Genome 95:818-820.
  2. ↑ Searle AG. (1974). “The origins of Mouse News Letter”. Mouse News Letter No 50:5-6.
  3. ↑ Lyon, MF. (2002). “A personal history of the mouse genome”. Annu. Rev. Genom. Hum. Genet. 3: 1-16.
  4. ↑ Green, MC. (1981). “Chapter 14: Sources of Information” Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse. Gustav Fischer Verlag.
  5. ↑ Green, MC (1966). “Mutant genes and linkages”, pp. 87-150 in Biology of the Laboratory Mouse, Second Edition, edited by E. L. Green McGraw-Hill New York.
  6. ↑ Davisson, MT; Roderick, TH; Doolittle, DP. (1989). “Chapter 6 Recombination percentages and chromosomal assignments” in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse 2nd Edition Eds MF Lyon, AG Searle, Dover Publications.
  7. ↑ Dunn, LC; Grüneberg, H; Snell, GD. (1940). “Report of the Committee on Mouse Genetic Nomenclature”. J. Hered. 31: 505-506.
  8. ↑ Staats, J. (1966).”Chapter 6: Nomenclature” Biology of the Laboratory Mouse 2nd Edition. Dover Publications.
  9. ↑ Davisson, MT; Roderick, TH; Doolittle, DP. (1989). “Chapter 6 Recombination percentages and chromosomal assignments” in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse 2nd Edition Eds MF Lyon, AG Searle, Dover Publications.
  10. ↑ Elliott, RW. (1996) “Chapter 8: DNA Restriction Fragment Variants" in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse 3rd Edition Eds MF Lyon, S.Rastan, SDM Brown Oxford University Press.
  11. ↑ Lyon, MF; Kirby, MC. (1996). “Chapter 4: Mouse Chromosome Atlas” in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse 3rd Edition Eds MF Lyon, S.Rastan, SDM Brown Oxford University Press.
  12. ↑ Nadeau,JH; Reiner, AH. (1989) “Chapter 7: Linkage and Synteny Homologies in Mouse and Man” in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse 2nd Edition Eds MF Lyon, AG Searle , Dover Publications.
  13. ↑ Kozak, C. (1996) “Chapter 3; Retroviral and Cancer-related Genes” in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse 3rd Edition Eds MF Lyon, S.Rastan, SDM Brown Oxford University Press.
  14. ↑ Searle, AG; Beechey, CV: (1981) “Chapter 8.1 Map of reciprocal translocations and insertions” in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse. Gustav Fischer Verlag.
  15. ↑ Searle, AG; Beechey, CV: (1989) “Chapter 13.1 Map of reciprocal translocations, inversions, and insertions” in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse 2nd Edition Eds MF Lyon, AG Searle , Dover Publications.
  16. ↑ Beechey, CV: (1996) “Chapter 13.1 Map of reciprocal and Robertsonoan translocations, insertions and cytologically visible deletions” in Genetic Variants and Strains of the Laboratory Mouse 3rd Edition Eds MF Lyon, S.Rastan, SDM Brown Oxford University Press.
  17. ↑ Silver, LM; Nadeau, JH; Brown, SDM; Eppig, JT; Peters, J. (1998). (January 1998). "Mammalian Genome, Incorporating Mouse Genome". Mamm Genome 9 (1): 1. doi:10.1007/s003359900669. PMID   9435276.
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