Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Commentary
  • Published:

The Collaborative Cross, a community resource for the genetic analysis of complex traits

The goal of the Complex Trait Consortium is to promote the development of resources that can be used to understand, treat and ultimately prevent pervasive human diseases. Existing and proposed mouse resources that are optimized to study the actions of isolated genetic loci on a fixed background are less effective for studying intact polygenic networks and interactions among genes, environments, pathogens and other factors. The Collaborative Cross will provide a common reference panel specifically designed for the integrative analysis of complex systems and will change the way we approach human health and disease.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1
Figure 2: The eight-way 'funnel' breeding scheme for generating RI strains.
Figure 3: A typical eight-way RI strain.

References

  1. Zerhouni, E. Science 302, 63–64 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Williams, S.M., Haines, J.L. & Moore, J.H. BioEssays 26, 170–179 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Sillanpää, M.J. & Auranen, K. Ann. Hum. Genet. (in the press).

  4. Jansen, R.C. Nat. Rev. Genet. 4, 145–151 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hartwell, L. Science 303, 774–775 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Gibson, G. & Mackay, T.F.C. Genet. Res. 80, 1–6 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Belknap, J. Behav. Genet. 28, 29–38 (1998).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Reifsnyder, P.C., Churchill, G.A. & Leiter, E.H. Genome Res. 10, 1568–1578 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Shimomura, K. et al. Genome Res. 11, 959–980 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Carlborg, Ö. & Haley, C.C. Nat. Rev. Genet 5, 618–625 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Jin, C. et al. Genetics (in the press).

  12. Threadgill, D.W., Hunter, K.W. & Williams, R.W. Mamm. Genome 13, 175–178 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Nadeau, J.H. et al. Genome Res. 13, 2082–2091 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Chesler, E.J. et al. Neuroinformatics 1, 343–357 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Jansen, R.C. et al. Theor. Appl. Genet. 91, 33–37 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Clark, A.G. Limits to predcition of phenotypes from knowledge of genotypes. in Limits to Knowledge in Evolutionary Genetics (ed. M. Clegg) (Plenum, New York, 1999).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Consortia

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gary A Churchill.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

The Complex Trait Consortium. The Collaborative Cross, a community resource for the genetic analysis of complex traits. Nat Genet 36, 1133–1137 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1104-1133

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng1104-1133

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing