RESEARCH PLAN

Principal Investigator/Program Director Williams, Robert W.

The Mouse Brain Library

In the summer of 1997, Drs. Rosen and Williams began a collaboration to produce a large collection of sectioned brains specifically designed to enable us to begin quantitative genetic studies of neuroanatomical phenotypes. The Mouse Brain Library (MBL) now includes a large collection of standard inbred strains that provide a strong platform for building the MBL to the level described below. In addition to these inbred strains, we have a large collection of mice from 4 RI strain sets (BXD, AXB, BXA, and BXH) as well as some F₁ and F₂ intercrosses. During the course of this proposal, we anticipate adding approximately 300400 mice each year to the library in order to enhance the representation of RI strains, standard inbred strains, F₁ and F₂ intercrosses, and the advanced G₁₀ intercross (see Core B).

Whenever possible, strains have been obtained from the Jackson Laboratory (Bar Harbor, ME). Intercross progeny (F₁ and F₂) presently in the collection were generated at UT Memphis using Jackson parental strains, and those listed in the current proposal will also be generated at UT Memphis. Age, sex, and body and brain weights are known for almost all mice. In some cases, litter size and mother's parity is also known. See < nervnet.org> for more data. The roster of current processed brains is summarized in Table 1.

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Bioinformatics Components of the current Mouse Brain Library