A comprehensive and comparative phenotypic analysis of the collaborative founder strains identifies new and known phenotypes.

Heike Kollmus
Helmut Fuchs
Christoph Lengger
Hamed Haselimashhadi
Molly A. Bogue, The Jackson Laboratory
Manuela A Östereicher
Marion Horsch
Thure Adler
Juan Antonio Aguilar-Pimentel
Oana Veronica Amarie
Lore Becker
Johannes Beckers
Julia Calzada-Wack
Lillian Garrett
Wolfgang Hans
Sabine M Hölter
Tanja Klein-Rodewald
Holger Maier
Philipp Mayer-Kuckuk
Gregor Miller
Kristin Moreth
Frauke Neff
Birgit Rathkolb
Ildikó Rácz
Jan Rozman
Nadine Spielmann
Irina Treise
Dirk Busch
Jochen Graw
Thomas Klopstock
Eckhard Wolf
Wolfgang Wurst
Ali Önder Yildirim
Jeremy Mason
Arturo Torres
Mouse Phenome Database Team
Rudi Balling
Terry Mehaan
Valerie Gailus-Durner
Klaus Schughart
Martin Hrabě de Angelis

Abstract

The collaborative cross (CC) is a large panel of mouse-inbred lines derived from eight founder strains (NOD/ShiLtJ, NZO/HILtJ, A/J, C57BL/6J, 129S1/SvImJ, CAST/EiJ, PWK/PhJ, and WSB/EiJ). Here, we performed a comprehensive and comparative phenotyping screening to identify phenotypic differences and similarities between the eight founder strains. In total, more than 300 parameters including allergy, behavior, cardiovascular, clinical blood chemistry, dysmorphology, bone and cartilage, energy metabolism, eye and vision, immunology, lung function, neurology, nociception, and pathology were analyzed; in most traits from sixteen females and sixteen males. We identified over 270 parameters that were significantly different between strains. This study highlights the value of the founder and CC strains for phenotype-genotype associations of many genetic traits that are highly relevant to human diseases. All data described here are publicly available from the mouse phenome database for analyses and downloads.