JAX NOTES: Coat Colors of Sublines of 129 Mice

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Coat Colors of Sublines of 129 Mice

JAX^® NOTES Issue 441b, Spring 1990

Barbara A. Witham, Service and Distribution Manager

Coat color alleles

The 129 strain was derived from strain 101 by Dunn. Dunn sent the 129's to W.L. Russell who then sent the line to Runner. In 1947 Russell sent stock to Hunt, and Runner sent stock to Wynder the same year.

In 1948 JAX received 129 stock from both Hunt and Wynder. Hunt's line was c^ch/c^ch p/p in genotype and Wynder's was c/c p/p. The JAX subline was established by crossing these two sublines.

The coat color alleles of interest in sublines of 129 are A^w, white bellied agouti; p, pink-eyed dilution; c^ch, chinchilla and c, albino. The genotype A^w/A^w causes a reduction in the pigment of the hairs on the belly. The genotype p/p causes a drastic reduction of the pigment in all body hair and the iris of the eyes producing pink eyes similar to those of albinos. At the "C" locus the c^ch/c^ch genotype causes a reduction in the yellow pigment of hair. The genotype c/c produces the albino (white with pink eyes) phenotype in which all pigment formation is suppressed. Mice of the genotype c^ch/c have intermediate pigmentation between that of the c/c and c^ch/c^ch phenotypes.

The table below illustrates genotypes of the various sublines of 129 maintained by The Jackson Laboratory and indicates the mating system used to maintain the genotypes:

Subline genotypes

Subline	Genotype	Coat and Eye Color	Mating Scheme
129/J	A^w/A^wc/c p/p or A^w/A^w c^ch/c p/p	albino (white) with pink eyes cream color with pink eyes	A^w/A^w c^ch/c p/p x A^w/A^w c/c p/p¹
129/ReJ	A^w/A^w c^ch/c^ch p/p	light buff color with pink eyes	A^w/A^w c^ch/c^ch p/p x A^w/A^w c/c p/p
129/SvJ	A^w/A^w c^ch/c p/p or A^w/A^w c/c p/p	cream color with pink eyes albino (white) with pink eyes	A^w/A^w c^ch/c p/p x A^w/A^w c/c p/p¹
129/Sv-c^ch +^p-ter/+²	A^w/A^w c^ch/c^ch +^p/+^p	chinchilla with white belly and dark eyes	A^w/A^w c^ch/c^ch +^p/+^p x A^w/A^w c^ch/c^ch +^p/+^p

Footnotes

1. This mating scheme is known as forces heterozygosity. The mating of heterozygotes c^ch/c with homozygotes c/c each generation will produce offspring of which the expected ratio is one-half heterozygotes and one-half homozygotes.

2. This subline is only available from the Frozen Embryo Repository.

References

The Jackson Laboratory Supply Bulletin No. 323, 21 September 1962, Coat color of 129/J mice. The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609.

Heiniger, H-J and Dorey, J.L. (Eds.). 1980. Handbook on Genetically Standardized JAX Mice. The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine 04609.