Global Resources: Including Gene Trapped ES Cell Clones - Is Your Gene Already Knocked Out

The design of any new mouse genetic modification today should start with careful scrutiny of the resources that are already available, through the internet, for information relating to your gene of interest. International mouse consortia are constantly providing new genetically modified alleles of virtually any gene in the mouse genome. Therefore, unless a very specific knock-in allele is required, it is more than likely that the envisaged mutation has already been obtained somewhere and made available in the form of embryonic stem (ES) cell clones, live animals, or cryopreserved sperm or embryos. In this chapter, I will review the current (November 2010) global resources that are available through the internet, where the most updated information about any given mouse gene should be examined, before any new experiment is planned or conducted. The knowledge and adequate use of all these global resources should speed up the acquisition of knowledge in the fields of biology, biomedicine, and biotechnology, while avoiding the redundant use of animals for experimentation and optimizing the use of limited funding resources. In this chapter, I will try to respond to two basic questions: where is my mouse? and what is known about my gene?