DOI: 10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9skn
title: Data from: Phenotypic resources immortalized in a panel of wild-derived strains of five species of house mice

description: The house mouse, Mus musculus, is a widely used animal model in biomedical
 research, with classical laboratory strains (CLS) being the most
 frequently employed. However, the limited genetic variability in CLS
 hinders their applicability in evolutionary studies. Wild-derived strains
 (WDS), on the other hand, provide a suitable resource for such
 investigations. To assess the proportion of variation added by wild
 progenitors, we estimated phenotypic variation in 84 WDS representing 5
 species (M. musculus, M. spretus, M. spicilegus, M. macedonicus, M.
 caroli), 3 subspecies (M. m. musculus, M. m. domesticus, M. m. castaneus),
 and compared it with 5 CLS. The spectrum of WDS captures long-term mouse
 evolution, estimated to be over 5 million years ago since the split of M.
 caroli from the remaining mouse species. All mice are housed in a
 conventional breeding facility (without a nanofilter barrier or
 specific-pathogen free condition) at the Institute of Vertebrate Biology,
 Czech Academy of Sciences, in Studenec. They are maintained under standard
 conditions: light/dark regime of 14/10 hours, temperatures of 23 ± 1 °C
 during summer (April-September) and 22 ± 1 °C during winter
 (October-March), respectively, and relative humidity within 40-70 %. Mice
 have access to food pellets and tap water ad libitum. Further data on this
 mouse repository and WDS can be obtained at
 https://housemice.cz/en/strains/. Morphological traits were measured in
 4335 mice and include body weight, spleen weight, body length, tail
 length, weight of both ovaries, sperm count, the weight of testes, left
 epididymis, and seminal vesicles. Reproductive ability was estimated in 87
 WDS and 8 CLS. This dataset was obtained from 90,077 offspring born to
 8,298 mothers in 17,049 litters recorded in Studenec studbooks between
 2000 and 2023. Reproductive performance was characterized by litter size,
 newborn mortality (calculated as the proportion of stillborn or
 cannibalized mice across all litters), and the number of generations
 produced per year. We also estimated the time since a WDS was established
 from wild progenitors until completing 20 generations of strict
 brother-sister mating, i.e., the generation at which a strain of mice can
 be considered inbred. Although CLS resemble M. m. domesticus and M. m.
 musculus WDS, they differ from them in 8 and 11 out of 15 phenotypic
 traits, respectively. The data suggest that WDS can be a useful tool in
 evolutionary studies, providing a basis for comparative analyses with
 other mammal taxa, particularly classical laboratory mice. The detected
 stunning phenotypic variation supplemented by genetic variation have great
 potential for medical applications.
description: The first dataset contains 163 aligned mitogenome sequences. The
 measures presented in four csv files contaíning phenotype data were
 obtained from fresh mice immediately after sacrifice, and the units of
 variables are specified as millimeters (mm) for length measures and grams
 for mass measures.
description: # Data from: Phenotypic resources immortalized in a panel of wild-derived
 strains of five species of house mice
 \[[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9skn](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.r7sqv9skn)] The dataset comprises five distinct datasets as detailed below: ### Dataset 1: Dataset\_1.Mitogenomes.Aligned.fasta Contains aligned sequences of 163 whole mitochondrial genomes. The sequences were aligned using Clustal Omega SW (Sievers, Wilm et al. 2011: https://doi.org:10.1038/msb.2011.75 ) ### Dataset 2: Morphometric data of male mice csv file contains raw morphometric data of 2363 male mice with columns: “Genome” = Taxonomic status of the strain where mus = M. m. musculus, dom = M. m. domesticus, CLS = classical lab strain with predominantly M. m. domesticus genome, cas = M. m. castaneus, car = M. caroli, spi = M. spicilegus, spr = M. spretus, mac = M. macedonicus “Strain” = wild-derived strain code “PIN” = identification code of the mouse “BW” = Body weight (g) “L” = Body length (mm) “LCd” = Tail length (mm) “Tmass” = Mean testis weight (g) “Epidydimis” = Weight of the left epidydimis (g) “SemVes” = Weight of seminal vesicles (g) “Sperm” = Number of sperm (millions) “Tail.Body” = 100*Tail length/Body length ### Dataset 2: Morphometric data of female mice csv file contains raw morphometric data of 2131 female mice with columns: “Genome” = Taxonomic status of the strain where mus = M. m. musculus, dom = M. m. domesticus, CLS = classical lab strain with predominantly M. m. domesticus genome, cas = M. m. castaneus, car = M. caroli, spi = M. spicilegus, spr = M. spretus, mac = M. macedonicus “Strain” = wild-derived strain code “PIN” = identification code of the mouse “BW” = Body weight (g) “L” = Body length (mm) “LCd” = Tail length (mm) “Ovary” = Ovary weight (g) “Tail.Body” = 100*Tail length/Body length ### Dataset 3: Spleen weight in mice csv file contains raw data of 3229 mice with columns: “Genome” = Taxonomic status of the strain where mus = M. m. musculus, dom = M. m. domesticus, CLS = classical lab strain with predominantly M. m. domesticus genome, cas = M. m. castaneus, car = M. caroli, spi = M. spicilegus, spr = M. spretus, mac = M. macedonicus “Strain” = wild-derived strain code “PIN” = identification code of the mouse “Sex” = sex (coded as male or female) “BW” = Body weight (g) “Spleen” = Spleen length (g) ### Dataset 4: Reproduction parameters Contains summarized data on reproductive performance of 100 wild-derived and classical laboratory mouse strains with columns: “Genome” = Taxonomic status of the strain where mus = M. m. musculus, dom = M. m. domesticus, CLS = classical lab strain with predominantly M. m. domesticus genome, cas = M. m. castaneus, car = M. caroli, spi = M. spicilegus, spr = M. spretus, mac = M. macedonicus “Strain” = wild-derived strain code “Start” = Date of birth or sampling “N_Dams” = Number of females “LitterSize” = Litter size “SD” = Standard deviation (litter size) “N_Litters” = Number of litters “N_Mice” = Number of newborns “Mortality” = Mortality in newborn mice “DaysinLab” = Number of days spent in the lab (at the time of analysis - 1 June 2024) “Gen” = Number of inbred generations weaned in Studenec “Status” = Alive or extinct (on 1 June 2024) “Gen_Year” = Mean number of generations per year “Years2Inbred” = Estimated time in years to develop an inbred strain (at 20 generations of inbred mating) ## Sharing/Access information The dataset is associated with a publication titled "Phenogenomic resources immortalized in a panel of wild-derived strains of five species of house mice," authored by Piálek J., Ďureje Ľ., Hiadlovská Z., Kreisinger J., Aghová T., Bryjová A., Čížková D., Goüy de Bellocq J., Hejlová H., Janotová K., Martincová I., Orth A., Piálková J., Pospíšilová I., Rousková L., Vošlajerová Bímová B., Bonhomme F., Forejt J., Macholán M., Klusáčková P. The publication is available as a preprint on BioRxiv ([https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.05.565684](https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.11.05.565684)).