Ten years of the collaborative cross

Abstract

The February 2012 issues of GENETICS and G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics present a collection of articles reporting recent advances from the international Collaborative Cross (CC) project. The goal of the CC project is to develop a new resource that will enhance quantitative trait locus (QTL) and systems genetic analyses in mice. The CC consists of hundreds of independently bred, octo-parental recombinant inbred lines (Figure 1). The work reported in these issues represents progress toward completion of the CC, proof-of-principle experiments using incipient inbred CC mice, and new research areas and complementary resources facilitated by the CC project.

Figure 1

Development of an individual CC line. Each CC line originates from an independently breeding funnel so that every recombination site in the CC population is uniquely generated. In this example, a CC line is produced from the breeding line with laboratory code OR867. The first CC line to be declared inbred was from this breeding funnel and was given the official designation CC0001/Unc. A representation of the genome color-coded by founder strain contribution and a photograph of a mouse from CC0001/Unc is shown next to the breeding funnel.