[Genetic fingerprinting of inbred lines, outbred lines, transgenic individuals and 3T3 cells of Mus musculus with the probe B.E.S.T. MZ 1.3].

DNA samples from different inbred strains and F1-hybrids, from two outbred strains and from transgenic animals of the species Mus musculus were tested according to the "DNA fingerprint" technique (Jeffreys et al., 1985) using the B.E.S.T.-probe MZ 1.3 (Fa. Biotest, Frankfurt) and the restriction endonuclease Hinf I. In addition, the same method was applied to two cell types i.e. BALB/3T3 clone A 31 and 3T3 B-SV40. The DNA fingerprinting technique with probe MZ 1.3 proved to be a reliable method for genetic monitoring of different strains of mice. All inbred strains tested as well as their substrains could be identified and distinguished from each other without any doubt. Congenic and transgenic individuals, however, were identical with their background strains. After several in vitro passages, cells from cultures showed the similar DNA configuration as the donor strains. Within outbred strains, it was possible to quantify heterozygosity by the configuration of the DNA-patterns. These results suggest that it might be appropriate to replace the mathematically estimated inbreeding coefficient by so-called identity-coefficient (IK), which would depend on the probe and the restriction endonuclease used (e.g. IKMZ 1.3/Hinf I). Using the MZ 1.3 probe, the DNA fingerprint technique allows a unique genetic identification of different strains of mice and offers, furthermore, the possibility to use a colour kit rather than the usual P-32 marker.