About the Resource
The Mouse Mutant Resource (MMR) program is an integral part of The Jackson Laboratory's Genetic Resources. The mission of the MMR is to develop new mutant mouse model systems for biomedical research, maintain these mutant stocks as efficiently as possible, preserve the stocks or their germplasm for the future, and distribute the stocks and information about them to the scientific community. The MMR provides a comprehensive and secure resource of spontaneous mouse mutations.
Strain characterization. Mice with new spontaneous mutations are genetically and pathologically characterized to evaluate their value for biomedical research. Each new mutation is characterized genetically by determining its mode of inheritance, its allelism with known mutations that produce similar phenotypes, and its chromosomal location. The new mutants are characterized phenotypically by observing their fertility, growth, viability, life span, and behavior and by defining their anatomical, histopathological, and physiological abnormalities.
Strain acquisition. Many new spontaneous mutations are discovered in the large breeding colonies at TJL. New strains are also acquired from other investigators when they can no longer maintain them. Strains may be submitted to the MMR through the TJL's internal Genetic Resources Committee using an online Submission Form. New mutants are continually being added to the collection, and mutants that are in less demand are removed from the breeding colony after being preserved as frozen embryos, sperm, ovaries or a combination thereof, which assures their continued availability without occupying valuable mouse room space. New mutations added to the MMR are announced to the scientific community by published descriptions in the scientific literature and on this web site, and by including them in the searchable Mouse Genome Informatics and JAX Mice databases.
History of the MMR. The Jackson Laboratory (TJL) has a long tradition of studying and maintaining mutant mice. The first colonies of mutant mice were established by Drs. George Snell and Elizabeth Russell in the 1930s. During the late 1940s, Dr. Margaret Dickie organized many of these mutant mice into a resource colony called the Mouse Mutant Stocks Center (MMSC). The MMSC was first funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1958, with Dr. Margaret Green as Director. A second group of mutant strains was assembled into the Neurological Mutant Mouse Colony by Dr. Earl Green, then Director of TJL. It subsequently grew to include non-neurological mutants, was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and was renamed the Mouse Mutant Gene Resource (MMGR) by Dr. Eva M. Eicher, who assumed responsibility for it in 1971. In 1983 the MMSC and MMGR were consolidated into one functional unit, called the Mouse Mutant Resource (MMR), and Dr. Muriel T. Davisson was appointed Staff Supervisor. In 1993, Dr. Kenneth R. Johnson became Supervisor of the MMR, and in 1996 Dr. Leah Rae Donahue became MMR Colony Supervisor.
