Mouselines

The Mouselines pages are available for all of your colony data management. Some common workflow processes now have their own automated pages, simplifying your day and freeing up your time.


Features You Know and Love


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Alleles

We want our genetic information to be as accurate as possible. All of the allele information is in its own section, including important information that didn't previously have a clear place, in LIMS alleles can be shared between different passports. This means that complex genetic information only needs to be entered once for each allele you're working with, greatly simplifying the process of performing multiple crosses and making it much easier for you to make sure that all the genetic information is accurate and complete.

Where to Find this Feature: Mouseline > Allele Search ( > View Allele ) and View Mouseline > View Allele


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Genotyping Assays

The genotyping assays section on an allele has been improved to make it easier for different labs to add and update. As long as you can view the allele, you may add assays to it. These assays will be identified by the name and lab, will be visible to others who can see the alleles, but will only be editable by members of the lab. Primer sets are also no longer limited to two sets.

Where to Find this Feature: Mouseline > Allele Search ( > View Allele ) and View Mouseline > View Allele > Genotyping


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Zygosity Tracking

Zygosity (heterozygous, homozygous, etc) is tracked on a per-mouse basis. This information will stay with a mouse forever once it has been entered, so you no longer need to worry about copying that information from cage to cage or losing the information once the mouse has been sacrificed. You can also specify zygosity for as many alleles as the mouse has, although the number printed on the physical cage card will still be limited for space reasons. Alleles can be assigned "shortform names" which will be used in place of the full name.

Where to Find this Feature: View Cage and View Mouse


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Per-lab Mouseline Common Names

Since some labs refer to a mouseline as one name, while another lab might refer to the same mouseline by a totally different name, it can be confusing to try to share information. A mouseline can now have a common name associated with it for each AUP that it is on. This name will show on cages and mice associated with that AUP. Labs can use this common name as an easier alternative to the more technical standard nomenclature which should also be included on the passport.

Where to Find this Feature: View AUP > Mouselines


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Welfare

Since one of our primary concerns at TCP is the health and welfare of our animals, we've expanded and standardized our approach to mouseline welfare information. We have a set of standard welfare terms and categories that can be listed under any mouseline passport. By standardizing the terms, we can help encourage their use by making them easier to enter into the passport, and we can also remove some confusion that can happen when unfamiliar terms are used. For some specific terms, an icon will even be printed on each cage card associated with that mouseline to ensure that staff working with those mice are aware of any potential issues. Welfares will need to be entered if a welfare assessment was done and welfare issues were found.

Where to Find this Feature: View Mouseline > Welfare


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Attachments

You can attach files to a mouseline passport and alleles. These files can be viewed by anyone who can view the passport. For instance, you could attach gene sequencing information, pictures of welfare-related issues, or published research. If the attachments associated with the Mouseline are searchable PDFs, the contents of the documents are included in the Mouseline search if the Document Contents option is selected in the Column Options dropdown.

Where to Find this Feature: View Mouseline > Attachments and View Allele > Attachments


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Combine Mouselines

Most new mouseline passports are the result of crosses between mice already in TCP. With the new allele system, you can now perform this common task with a minimum of effort by using the combine mouselines feature. While viewing one mouseline, click the Combine button to select a second mouseline to combine the current one with. Pressing Next will then take you to a page that will let you create a new passport containing all of the alleles from both of the parent passports. If you need to add or remove some of the alleles, you can do that as well. Much faster and more accurate than cloning an existing mouseline, the combine feature saves you valuable time.

Where to Find this Feature: View Mouseline > Combine (in the Action Panel)


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MGI Integration

To help reduce data entry and improve accuracy, we have arranged with the Mouse Genome Informatics group at The Jackson Laboratory to access the MGI allele database in realtime from within LIMS. This means that, while filling out genetic information as part of a passport, you can now search for the affected gene and allele in the MGI database without leaving LIMS. We can then show some of the basic information associated with that gene and allele, as well as the direct link to the MGI page showing detailed information.

Where to Find this Feature: View Allele > MGI


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Find Similar Mouselines

Since we are a shared facility, it's sometimes the case that multiple passports are entered for the same mouseline. We've added a section on the mouseline page that shows other passports that are similar to the current one based on which alleles they contain. When you're reviewing your passports, you can check to make sure that there aren't any duplicates. Duplicate passports reduce our ability to collaborate and tend to cause one or both passports to not have a complete picture of all the information we have on that mouseline.

Where to Find this Feature: View Mouseline > Similar Mouselines (in Related Entities Panel)


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Active Cage Listing

When viewing a mouseline, the number of active cages for that mouseline is displayed for the selected filter. TCP Managers can access this information for all AUPs, allowing staff to quickly check if a mouseline is currently active in the facility or not. This can help prevent unnecessary rederivations.

Where to Find this Feature: View Mouseline


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Mouseline Lifecycle

Mouselines have a status to indicate their approval status as well as 4 flags.

Statuses -

  • Under Review - Changes to the Mouseline are being reviewed by TCP.
  • Approved - Mouseline has been reviewed and approved for use at TCP.
  • Modified - Mouseline has been modified since it was initially approved.
  • Archived - Mouseline is no longer in use at TCP. Mouselines that are ARCHIVED are not included in Mouseline dropdowns.

Flags -

  • Cryopreserved - Mouseline has been cryopreserved. The Mouseline may or may not be archived. The Mouseline should be Complete.
  • Complete - Mouseline includes all the required information. This field is modified by Mouseline Administrators.
  • Confidential - Mouselines that are CONFIDENTIAL are only visible to individuals that are associated with AUPs that are associated with the Mouseline. Mouseline confidentiality is no longer determined by the confidentiality of the associated alleles, but by its own confidentiality flag.
  • Delayed Weaning - Flag is set if the Mouseline requires delayed weaning of pups.

Currently, not all APPROVED or MODIFIED Mouselines are Complete but we are working to fix this. They must be Complete before they are Crypreserved.

Where to Find this Feature: View Mouseline > Admin

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