15 The Mouse Genome

Abstract

Because of its many advantages as an animal model, geneticists have used the house mouse since the early days of genetics. Historical records indicate that Mendel himself bred and crossed mice, segregating for coat color mutations, until he was requested by the ecclesiastical hierarchy to stop experimenting with animals and to resume working with garden peas (Paigen 2003). In 1902, shortly after Mendel’s laws were rediscovered, Lucien Cuénot used mice to demonstrate that the laws in question applied to mammals as they did to plants (Cuénot 1902). Since these initial observations, and if we exclude interruptions in progress due to the world wars, it is not an exaggeration to say that the advances in mouse genetics have been growing exponentially, even booming over the last 15 years. In this anniversary review, I will cover the most important achievements that occurred in the period spanning 1990 to 2005 and will discuss the anticipated developments in the years to come.

Before we start reviewing these achievements, it is important to note that the context in which mouse genetics has been evolving during the period covered by this review can in no way be compared with the period before it. For the majority of the 20th century, the community of mouse geneticists operated like a club of friends, with occasional meetings and the exchanging of ideas and animals (mostly mutant strains) in a very informal way. During this period, research projects were run on a small scale and were carried out independently. With...