Phifer-Rixey Megan, Nachman Michael W
Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States.
Elife. 2015 Apr 15;4:e05959. doi: 10.7554/eLife.05959.
The house mouse, Mus musculus, was established in the early 1900s as one of the first genetic model organisms owing to its short generation time, comparatively large litters, ease of husbandry, and visible phenotypic variants. For these reasons and because they are mammals, house mice are well suited to serve as models for human phenotypes and disease. House mice in the wild consist of at least three distinct subspecies and harbor extensive genetic and phenotypic variation both within and between these subspecies. Wild mice have been used to study a wide range of biological processes, including immunity, cancer, male sterility, adaptive evolution, and non-Mendelian inheritance. Despite the extensive variation that exists among wild mice, classical laboratory strains are derived from a limited set of founders and thus contain only a small subset of this variation. Continued efforts to study wild house mice and to create new inbred strains from wild populations have the potential to strengthen house mice as a model system.
家鼠（小家鼠）在20世纪初被确立为首批遗传模式生物之一，这是由于其世代周期短、产仔数相对较多、易于饲养以及存在可见的表型变异。基于这些原因，并且由于它们是哺乳动物，家鼠非常适合作为人类表型和疾病的模型。野生家鼠至少由三个不同的亚种组成，在这些亚种内部和之间都存在广泛的遗传和表型变异。野生小鼠已被用于研究广泛的生物学过程，包括免疫、癌症、雄性不育、适应性进化和非孟德尔遗传。尽管野生小鼠之间存在广泛的变异，但经典的实验室品系源自有限的一组奠基者，因此仅包含这种变异的一小部分。持续努力研究野生家鼠并从野生种群中创建新的近交系有可能强化家鼠作为一种模型系统的作用。
