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Factors Affecting Vertebral Variation in Mice

2. Further Evidence on Intra-strain Variation

Department of Zoology, University College, University of London

¹ Authors' address: Royal Veterinary College, Royal College Street, London N.W.1, U.K.

Received for publication 11 February 1955.

SUMMARY

Since the enunciation by Johannsen in 1903 of the ‘pure line’ doctrine inbred strains have been used for various experimental purposes in the belief that they offer the highest attainable level of uniformity. This view is now known to be of limited validity. One reason is that ‘pure lines’ are not always as genetically pure as a simple Mendelian calculus would predict. Another is that for many characters inbred organisms are peculiarly sensitive during their development to environmental causes of variation (see the references cited by Grüneberg (1954), McLaren & Michie (1954a), and Biggers & Claringbold (1954); to these should be added Hagedoorn (1939), Mather (1946), Lerner (1954), and Kushner & Kameneva (1954)).

In this paper we consider the degree to which these two qualifications are exemplified by the variation of the number of lumbar vertebrae in mice.

As in the previous paper vertebral types will be denoted by the following symbols: 6/6 = six lumbar vertebrae on each side.

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