Helpful hints for understanding inbred strain and gene nomenclature

The parent strain designation of an inbred strain name may consist of capital letters, combinations of letters and numbers, or numbers only (e.g., DBA, C57BL, and 129). Related inbred strains, strains that have a common origin and separated before F20, are given symbols that indicate this relationship (e.g., NZB and NZW; NOD and NON). Substrains are designated by the name of the parent strain followed by a forward slash and a substrain symbol that may be a number and/or the Laboratory Registration Code of the individual or institution that maintains or generated the substrain. For example, DBA/1J, DBA/1LacJ, and DBA/2J are substrains of DBA: the numbers 1 and 2 identify the substrains, Lac is the laboratory code for Laboratory Animal Center at Carshalton, U.K., and J is the laboratory code for The Jackson Laboratory. Because genetic differences in successive substrains accumulate, so do the substrain symbols: A/HeJ is a substrain held first by Heston (He) and now maintained at The Jackson Laboratory (J).

For more detailed information on mouse strain nomenclature, consult the following: