NIEHS to Sequence 15 JAX® Mice Strains

JAX® NOTES Issue 496, Winter 2005

As part of a two-year contract with Perlegen Sciences, Inc., of Mountain View, CA, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) will invest $13 million to sequence the DNA of 15 JAX® Mice strains most frequently used to study human diseases: 129S1/SvImJ, A/J, AKR/J, BALB/cByJ, BTBR T+ tf/J, C3H/HeJ, CAST/EiJ, DBA/2J, FVB/NJ, MOLF/EiJ, KK/HlJ, NOD/LtJ, NZW/LacJ, PWD/PhJ, and WSB/EiJ. The initiative, called the "Resequencing Project," will launch the NIEHS' Center for Rodent Genetics, whose purpose will be to understand how interactions among genes and the environment cause disease.

By studying interactions between genes and the environment in genetically distinct mice, researchers will better understand them in humans. Almost 200 human diseases, including cancer, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, asthma, and autism, are caused by such interactions. Although dozens of genes that regulate such diseases have already been identified, few animal models are suitable for studying the interactions between genes and the environment. To help alleviate this problem, the Center will enter sequence data obtained by the Resequencing Project into a database accessible to scientists worldwide. The 15 JAX® Mice strains will be sequenced together and in reference to C57BL/6J, allowing researchers to compare sequences between all 16 strains very soon after the Project begins. Researchers will then be able to select the most appropriate models for their research, more quickly discover the causes of disease, and reduce the cost of developing new drugs.

JAX® Mice strain DBA/2J (Stock Number 000671)

The Project is part of a long term plan in which the Center for Rodent Genetics will cooperate with other agencies, notably the Human Genome Project, in the National Institute of Health. The Center will initially foster efforts to:

1) investigate relationships between environmental exposure and disease susceptibility,

2) identify disease mechanisms and pathways,

3) compare mouse and human biomarkers, and

4) develop cell-based methods for rapidly comparing the effects of environmental exposures. In its third year, the Center will begin using its findings to conduct population analyses and toxicology tests.

For more information about the Resequencing Project, see www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=15487