IDENTIFICATION OF SUBLINES OF INBRED STRAINS OF MICE AND ASSESSMENT OF GENETIC-RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SUBSTRAINS OR SUBLINES BY DNA-FINGERPRINTING

Identification of substrains or sublines of inbred mice and assessment of genetic relationships among them were performed on the basis of DN A fingerprinting using M13 phage DNA as a probe. We used eight C57BL/6 sublines (J//Jcl, J//Jms, J//Slc, J//Nrs, J//Yok, Jah, N//Crj, N//Jcl ) and eleven C3H/He sublines (J, J//Jcl, J//Yok, J//Nrs, J//Jms, N, N/ /Jcl, N//Crj, Slc, Jah, Nrs). Two kinds of restriction endonucleases ( HinfI and PstI) were used. It was found that : 1) DNA fingerprint with in each subline showed identical patterns. 2) Most sublines of C57BL/6 and C3H/He could be identified using DNA fingerprinting with HinfI ex cept between N//Crj and Slc, and among J, J//Nrs and J//Yok in C3H/He. DNA fingerprints with PstI endonucleases showed low polymorphic bandi ng patterns. 3) A dendrogram constructed from DNA fingerprint patterns reflected generally the genealogy of the sublines used. 4) DNA finger printing, therefore, seemed to be suitable for the genetic monitoring and assessment of genetic relationships among sublines of inbred mice having close relationships.