A strain of inbred mice commonly used for the creation of so-called knockout animals has been found to carry a previously undetected mutation that could affect the results of immune system research studies. In paper receiving online publication in Cell Reports, a team based at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard describe finding a chromosome 11 mutation in a strain of C57BL/6—often called "black 6" or B6—mice that they traced back to a specific commercial supplier. Their findings suggest that the results of previous studies using this subline of C57BL/6 need to be re-checked to make sure that this newly identified mutation was not responsible for observed results.
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