A Genetic Stock Center for Peromyscus

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

Abstract

This award renews support of the Peromyscus Genetic Stock Center at the University of South Carolina at Columbia. The deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) and congeneric species are among the most abundant, speciose, and widely distributed North American mammals. They range from Alaska to Central America and occur in many natural habitats. They are frequently used as models to study the fundamental processes underlying speciation, adaptative physiology, behavior, and community ecology. Laboratory stocks of both wild-type and genetically variant Peromyscus are used for investigations in which laboratory-based studies are interfaced with those of natural populations. The Peromyscus Genetic Stock Center was established in 1985. Today it provides a reliable source of Peromyscus and related materials to the national scientific and education communities. The Center currently houses seven species of Peromyscus and more than 35 distinctive mutant and other genetically defined stocks, primarily of the deer mouse. The Stock Center supplies researchers and educators with live animals, and with selected biological materials including fresh or preserved tissues, molecular probes and libraries of cloned Peromyscus DNA. It also functions as a clearinghouse for information by sponsoring an Internet database, maintaining a reference collection of reprints, standardizing the genetic nomenclature for the genus and publishing a semi-annual Peromyscus Newsletter. The Peromyscus Genetic Stock Center continues to be widely used throughout the U.S. and elsewhere.