Patent ID: 8110721

Claim:
A method of maintaining genetic stability of an inbred rodent strain, comprising: (a) establishing a foundation colony of an inbred rodent strain, wherein the foundation colony comprises only brother-sister pairs, parent-offspring pairs or brother-sister pairs and parent-offspring pairs from which all subsequent rodents of the strain are derived; (b) maintaining a pedigree-tracked stock of cryopreserved rodent gametes or pre-gametes, wherein the cryopreserved rodent gametes or pre-gametes are obtained from a brother-sister pair or a parent-offspring pair from the foundation colony established in step (a); (c) thawing and transplanting cryopreserved pedigree-tracked stock pre-gametes obtained in step (b) to produce pedigree-tracked male and/or female gametes; (d) breeding the pedigree-tracked male and female gametes obtained in step (b) and/or (c) to produce pedigree-tracked embryos; (e) producing live rodents from pedigree-tracked embryos obtained in step (d); (f) selecting a pedigreed inbred breeding pair from the live rodents obtained in step (e) to be used as a new founder pair to re-establish the foundation colony, wherein the inbred breeding pair is a brother sister pair or a parent-offspring pair from which all subsequent rodents of the strain are derived; (g) breeding the new founder pair obtained in step (f) to produce offspring and thereby re-establish the foundation colony wherein the foundation colony comprises only brother-sister pairs, parent-offspring pairs or brother-sister pairs and parent-offspring pairs from which all subsequent rodents of the strain are derived; and (h) replenishing the foundation colony by repeating steps (c) to (g) at intervals of 1 to 20 generations and thus, inhibiting the accumulation of genotypic changes, thereby maintaining genetic stability of the inbred strain.