title: High-Speed Mouse Backcrossing Through the Female Germ Line.
abstract: Transferring mouse mutations into specific mouse strain backgrounds can be critical for appropriate analysis of phenotypic effects of targeted genomic alterations and quantitative trait loci. Speed congenic breeding strategies incorporating marker-assisted selection of progeny with the highest percentage target background as breeders for the next generation can produce congenic strains within approximately 5 generations. When mating selected donor males to target strain females, this may require more than 1 year, with each generation lasting 10 to 11 weeks including 3 weeks of gestation and 7 to 8 weeks until the males reach sexual maturity. Because ovulation can be induced in female mice as early as 3 weeks of age, superovulation-aided backcrossing of marker-selected females could accelerate the production of congenic animals by approximately 4 weeks per generation, reducing time and cost. Using this approach, we transferred a transgenic strain of undefined genetic background to >99% C57BL/6J within 10 months, with most generations lasting 7 weeks. This involved less than 60 mice in total, with 9 to 18 animals per generation. Our data demonstrate that high-speed backcrossing through the female germline is feasible and practical with small mouse numbers.
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular and Human Genetics, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grove
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular and Human Genetics, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
authors.forename: Sigrid
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Eckardt
authors.affiliation: Center for Molecular and Human Genetics, The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
authors.forename: K John
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: McLaughlin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020296:Animals, Congenic / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005854:Germ Cells / Q000502:physiology*; D007178:Inbreeding / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010641:Phenotype; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000502:physiology; D012098:Reproduction / Q000502:physiology*