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