Who would have thought that a black mouse with a chance mutation would one day become one of the most requested mice in diabetes and obesity research? Such is the case with BKS.Cg- Dock7m +/+ Leprdb/J (000642), a JAX® Mice strain harboring the spontaneous diabetes mutation (db) in the leptin receptor (Lepr) gene. The JAX® Mice Database lists over 300 journal articles with this mouse as a main character. It has played a key role in many research areas, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, endocrine defects, fertility, immunodeficiency, metabolism, cardiovascular, thermoregulation and wound healing. Its popularity as a research tool has resulted in its extensive characterization.
Because Leprdb homozygotes are sterile, we have incorporated the “misty” coat color mutation (m; Dock7m) into our Leprdb colonies to allow genotyping offspring by their appearance. In strain 000642, the db and m alleles are maintained in repulsion – that is, with one mutant allele on each of the two copies of mouse chromosome 4. In this genetic arrangement, homozygous db/db mice (genotype: + db/+ db) are black and fat (not shown), heterozygotes (m +/ + db) used for breeding are black and lean black (upper left), and homozygous Lepr wild-types (m +/m +) are misty (lower right).
Some of this strain’s more notable features include the following:
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