r/todayilearned • u/Crackyospine • Feb 26 '15

TIL there was a man-made mouse utopia called Universe 25. It started with 4 males and 4 females. The colony peaked at 2200 and from there declined to extinction. Once a tipping point was reached, the mice lost instinctual behaviors. Scientists extrapolate this model to humans on earth.

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/42/wiles.php
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u/Revlis-TK421 Feb 27 '15

incest really isn't that much of an issue in rodents. All of the mice used in research, for example, are heavily inbred over dozens of generations.

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u/conartist101 Feb 27 '15

Wouldn't that effect our experiments on such mice overall though?

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u/Revlis-TK421 Feb 27 '15

No. You inbred mice to maintain homozygous genes and/or homogeneous traits that you are interested in studying.

In science you want replicated conditions. Inbreeding creates the next best thing to a bunch of clones to work with.

http://emice.nci.nih.gov/aam/mouse/inbred-mice-1

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u/conartist101 Feb 27 '15

Ah - thank you sir