title: Strain collections and genetic nomenclature.
abstract: The ease of rapidly accumulating a large number of mutants requires careful bookkeeping to avoid confusing one mutant with another. Each mutant constructed should be assigned a strain number. Strain numbers usually consist of two to three capital letters designating the lab where they were constructed and a serial numbering of the strains in a central laboratory collection. Every mutation should be assigned a name that corresponds to a particular gene or phenotype, and an allele number that identifies each specific isolate. When available for a particular group of bacteria, genetic stock centers are the ultimate resources for gene names and allele numbers. Examples include the Salmonella Genetic Stock Centre ( http://www.ucalgary.ca/~kesander/), and the E. coli Genetic Stock Center (http://cgsc.biology.yale.edu/). It is also important to indicate how the strain was constructed, the parental (recipient) strain, and the source of any donor DNA transferred into the recipient strain (Maloy et al., 1996).
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Center for Microbial Sciences, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Stanley R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Maloy
authors.forename: Kelly T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Hughes
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D002876:Chromosomes, Bacterial; D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D009154:Mutation; D010957:Plasmids; D009626:Terminology as Topic
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial