Mouse protein coding diversity: What's left to discover?

Area of Science:

• Genomics
• Mammalian Biology
• Translational Medicine

Background:

• Mice have been instrumental in modeling human diseases for over a century, contributing to fundamental biological discoveries and therapeutic development.
• Recent advancements in genomic resources, including reference genomes for multiple laboratory strains, have accelerated mouse genetics research.
• Comparative genomics reveals significant diversity in genes related to immunity, pathogen response, and sensory functions across mouse strains.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the current state of mouse genome diversity.
• To highlight the value of diverse mouse genomes for understanding human disease.
• To discuss the implications of genomic diversity for in vivo phenotypic trait dissection.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of available mouse genome sequences.
• Review of genomic resources for laboratory mouse strains.
• Examination of genetic diversity at key functional loci.

Main Results:

• The comparison of multiple mouse genomes reveals substantial diversity, particularly in immune system, pathogen response, and sensory function-related genes.
• Genomic data provides a foundation for dissecting complex phenotypic traits in vivo.
• The diversity across the mouse lineage offers valuable insights into mammalian biology.

Conclusions:

• The extensive genomic diversity in mice is a critical resource for biomedical research.
• Understanding mouse genome variation is essential for accurate human disease modeling and therapeutic development.
• Continued genomic characterization of diverse mouse strains will further advance our knowledge of both mouse and human biology.