There is general appreciation that 'genetic background effects' can profoundly affect the immune phenotypes of congenic, transgenic and knockout mice. We suggest that attributing phenotypes to genetic background effects is outmoded and that new databases containing single-nucleotide polymorphisms obtained with a group of inbred mouse strains can be used to define the flanking DNA of nearly all mouse genes.
- William M Ridgway
- Barry Healy
- Linda S Wicker
