A multivariate morphometric analysis of hippocampal anatomical variation in C57BL/6 in equilibrium BALB/c chimeric mice.
We investigated hippocampal anatomy in artificially-produced chimeras derived by the aggregation of embryos from two widely-studied inbred mouse strains, C57BL/6J and BALB/cJ. Contrary to expectations, the chimeras were not always intermediate between the parental strains. For a number of characters, the chimeras exceeded qualitatively as well as quantitatively the phenotypical range displayed by both inbred parental strains. These findings imply that if only one parent is available for comparison, for instance, in studies involving a normally inviable genotype, separating effects of this genotype from idiosyncratic effects inherent to the chimeric model will be very difficult, if not impossible.
Crusio
W E
WE
Institut für Humangenetik und Anthropologie, Universität Heidelberg, F.R.G.
Bär
I M
IM
Schwegler
H
H
Buselmaier
W
W
D000818:Animals; D002678:Chimera; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009929:Organ Size; D010641:Phenotype; D013045:Species Specificity