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Mouse News Letter and Mouse Genome

Overview

“To survey the history of Mouse News Letter is to see the history of mouse genetics unfold.” So wrote Mary Lyon in 1997. Mouse News Letter was launched in 1949 as an informal bulletin of mouse genetics information and ran for forty eight years. For many years it was issued twice a year but by 1991 it was issued quarterly. It became an official publication in 1986, published by Oxford University Press. In 1990 it changed its name to Mouse Genome with an aim of making the journal more widely known .. At the start of 1998 Mouse Genome merged with the journal Mammalian Genome. The fused journal kept the name Mammalian Genome and included the words “Incorporating Mouse Genome” on its front cover.

Mouse News Letter/Mouse Genome contained much information of use to mouse geneticists. Although Mouse News Letter became more sophisticated over the years many of the basic elements seen in the first issues were retained throughout its history. Thus, it published maps and lists of genes, chromosome anomalies, molecular markers, information on inbred strains, the latest rules on nomenclature of mouse genes, chromosome anomalies and inbred strains. There was a tradition that each issue had a theme and by the time it was published quarterly, these were genes, maps, inbred strains, and DNA markers. Mouse News Letter/Mouse Genome was sponsored by the Nomenclature Committee. The amount of mouse genetic information expanded hugely over the years and it became evident that access by hard copy was not sufficient. There is now an enormous wealth of information now available, maintained and updated electronically.

Mouse News Letter/Mouse Genome also published unrefereed research news, which could be very valuable, these often being the first reports of new mouse mutants and linkages. When Mouse News Letter became Mouse Genome in 1991 a new section of short refereed papers was added. It was recognized at that time that there was an increasing amount of mouse genetic data which did not warrant a full paper but needed to be put on record. Thus Mouse Genome started to accept brief reports that were refereed and thus had the status of a brief scientific paper. Unfortunately no such facility exists today!

Editors

1949 LC Dunn and Salome Gluecksohn-Schoenheimer (later Gluecksohn-Waelsch)

1950-1956 Toby Carter

1956-1970 Mary Lyon

1970-1982 Tony Searle

1982-1997 Jo Peters

1986 -1997 Michael Festing for the Inbred Strains issue

1991-1997 Steve Brown for the Maps issue

Mouse News Letter since 1997 Mouse News Letter continues to exist as a company Mouse News Letter Ltd, limited by guarantee and with charitable status. The aims remain the same in 2010 as they were in 1997 when the company was formed to run Mouse Genome. The main aim is “To promote the advancement of knowledge in the science of genetics for the benefit of the public”. It receives an income from Mammalian Genome to which it sold its publishing assets. It uses this income to provide funds to Mouse Genetics Conferences with a focus on enabling younger scientists to attend meetings.

A.G. Searle. The Origins of Mouse News Letter. Mouse News Letter 50: 5-6 (1974) THE ORIGINS OF MOUSE NEWS LETTER

One of the key events which helped to launch Mouse News Letter in 1949 happened 15 years earlier: the introduction of the "Drosophila Information Service" bulletin in 1934, giving regular news of stocks, workers and research. This proved a most successful enterprise and as genetic studies on other organisms expanded it must have seemed sensible to follow the fruit-fly's excellent example. It only needed someone to start the ball rolling, and for mice that someone was George D. Snell. Appropriately, he did it by means of a circular letter, sent spinning round a troubled world in 1939. This suggested the formation, not only of a mouse nomenclature committee (see his "Historical notes" in this issue) but also of a "Mouse Genetics News Service".

The immediate result of this initiative was the appearance of "Mouse Genetic News" no.1 in November 1941. This was edited by Snell and was "issued by the Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory with the collaboration of investigators using mice in biological research". It contained the original rules for assigning symbols to mouse mutations, lists of mutant genes and inbred strains, also list of laboratories and their mouse stocks. Because of the war, only American laboratories and their holdings were listed in the first issue. Contributors included several who are still very active in this or other fields, besides the editor himself. For instance, there was Ernst Caspari of Lafayette College, L.C. Dunn of Columbia, E.L. Green of Ohio State University and W.L. Russell of Jackson Laboratory. The first number was in such demand that it had to be replicated in November 1945. A second number, edited by L.W. Law of the National Cancer Institute, was published in the Journal of Heredity (vol. 39, pp. 3OO-3O8) in 1948. Again it contained lists of mutations, inbred strains, workers and stocks. In some ways, therefore, Mouse Genetics News was a "common ancestor" to both Inbred Strains of Mice and Mouse News Letter itself, but it did not have the research news component of the latter.

In July 1948, geneticists gathered in Stockholm for the Eighth International Congress. Amongst them was a strong contingent with special interest in the mouse, including Douglas Falconer, R.A. Fisher, Salome Gluecksohn-Schoenheimer (now Gluecksohn-Waelsch), Hans Grüneberg and Paula Hertwig. This group met together during the Congress in order to discuss the possible organization of a "Mouse Information Service". It was agreed that some sort of "information centre" was needed, producing a regular bulletin, primarily designed to serve the interests of people working on mouse genetics and deve¬lopment. The bulletin would contain letters from individual mouse workers, giving the latest news. Mouse Genetics News did not seem to fit the bill, as it was designed more for the needs of cancer research. Soon afterwards, Dr. Law (editor of Mouse Genetics News) was asked for his opinion and agreed that it was "a good idea to proceed with an information service for those interested in mouse genetics and development. This is beyond the objectives we had in mind for Mouse Genetics News". So the way ahead was clear.

The idea of an "M.I.S." seems to have had a generally favourable reception from those who were not at the Congress, particularly from L.C. Dunn. With Dr. Gluecksohn-Schoenheimer's help he set about the difficult but essential task of finding someone who would take on the job of running the new enterprise. Those at the Stockholm meeting felt that it should be produced in Britain, and Grüneberg seemed the logical man for the job. He was approached and agreed to "have a go at it", provided that funds could be found for secretarial help. Unfortunately this proved impossible. However, it is interesting to note that Dunn suggested "an annual contribution of $5" from each con¬tributing laboratory, the exact amount arrived at when Mouse News letter did "go it alone" 23 years later!

R.A. (later Sir Ronald) Fisher had also expressed a willingness to take on the job, but other mousers seem to have had private misgivings about this. Like many distin¬guished geneticists, he was somewhat eccentric and had many commitments, so the appear¬ance of a Fisherian mouse magazine seemed a doubtful and probably irregular pleasure. However, Fisher had taught some very promising students who were also keen on mice. One was T.C. Carter, then at the Institute of Animal Genetics in Edinburgh, where Falconer was and where the necessary secretarial help could be provided, thanks to the help of C.H. Waddington. So Toby Carter was invited (from across the Atlantic, to avoid friction with Fisher) to take on the job. To everyone's relief, he accepted.

While these rather lengthy negotiations were in progress, it seemed essential not to delay production of the first issue in case the whole project became stillborn. One other item had to be settled : the name. After much cogitation, Grüneberg's suggestion of "Mouse News Letter" was adopted. With the "ginger group" at Columbia (L.C. Dunn and S. Gluecksohn-Schoenheimer) acting as midwives, the first issue of Mouse News Letter was born on June 2nd 1949. A few extracts are given below. T.C. Carter then took over as "Secretary" and the second number was issued from Edinburgh on Feb. 1st 1950. The circular mouse emblem first appeared on the cover of the third number, reaching its final form with MNL 4. It was drawn by G.D. Roberts, the artist at the Institute of Animal Genetics, who is still there.

The association between Mouse News Letter and the Subject-Strain Bibliography of the Jackson Laboratory was organized at a meeting between Joan Staats and Toby Carter at the Laboratory early in 1953. Joan thinks she must have suggested the preparation of a reference list to accompany each MNL issue since "I have always had a near-fatal habit of volunteering"(for which every mouser should be exceedingly grateful). In any event, the first supplement went along with MNL 10 in Feb. 1954. It contained 268 references; the current one has 1447 even without the Abstracts.

"Inbred Strains of Mice" became a separate entity during Mary Lyon's 14-year period as MNL Editor. Some members of a reactivated and renamed Nomenclature Committee met in George Snell's hotel room in Montreal at the 10th International Genetics Congress in 1958. Previously, lists of inbred strains had appeared in Mouse News Letter, but this had become burdensome. At this meeting, the Jackson Laboratory (in particular, Joan Staats) offered to take over the inbred strains listings and to issue these every two years. This offer was gratefully accepted. It was also agreed to publish an index list of mouse inbred strains every four years; this has appeared regularly in Cancer Research. Joan has remained responsible for both these enterprises. Finally, here is a quotation from a letter about the MNL project written in December 1948, from L.C. Dunn to H. Gruneberg: "I think it ought not to become a formal publication but should remain modest and informal - and frequent, say twice a year." Those were the original intentions, which still seem valid today. Perhaps MNL 50 is somewhat less informal than MNL 1 (I don't know about the modesty) but this seems an inevitable consequence of the increase in knowledge of a subject and therefore in the amount of information which has to be imparted. At any rate, it is still not a publication (though much quoted) and still manages to appear twice a year, despite the occasional crisis!

M.F.Lyon. A Life Story of Mouse News Letter and Mouse Genome Mouse Genome 95 (4): 818-820 A LIFE STORY OF MOUSE NEWS LETTER AND MOUSE GENOME

Mary F Lyon

To survey the history of Mouse Genome (and Mouse News Letter) is to see the history of mouse genetics unfold. The early discussions leading to the first number in 1949 were very well described by Tony Searle (then Editor) in the golden jubilee number, Mouse News Letter No. 50, in 1974 (see above). There is a picture of enthusiasm and informality. The original numbers were produced very simply on a duplicating machine, and the distribution list was so small that it could be printed on one side of a page (see below). The first gene list, which appeared in issue no. 5, contained only 125 genes at 100 loci. There was no need for grants or for dedicated staff. In the early numbers Mouse News Letter did indeed read like a letter, with most of the space occupied by informal news from those on the distribution list. The first linkage map appeared in issue no. 9 and contained 15 "linkage groups" with 58 loci. Reminder cards were sent out before each new issue, asking people to send in their news and lists of stocks.

Soon mouse genetics, like biology in general, began to grow in the post-war scientific boom, and Mouse News Letter grew with it. In the cold war, and aftermath of the atomic bombs, with fears of the genetic effects of fallout from bomb testing in the atmosphere, there was much emphasis on mutagenesis work, leading to the finding of new mutations and expansion of the gene list. The immense value of the inbred strains started in the early years of the century also came to be realised and information on these expanded. This led to Inbred Strains of Mice, very ably collated by Joan Staats of the Jackson Laboratory, becoming a separate entity. In these days of computerised information retrieval it is difficult to believe that Joan Staats also produced the Subject-Strain Bibliography, which was distributed together with MNL from 1954 until Joan's retirement in 1984. Joan did Trojan work for MNL and the Bibliography was much valued. Needless to say, however, it expanded inexorably from 268 references in the first issue to several thousand in the 1980s, and at Joan's retirement it was discontinued and such information became entirely electronically available.

Thus, the first 10 years or so of MNL's existence showed a combination of growth and of the various component parts being put in place. For the next 20 years, to around 1980, this growth continued. The editorships changed as time passed. Toby Carter handed over to Mary Lyon in 1956. Then came Tony Searle in 1970 at MNL 42 and Jo Peters in 1982 at MNL 66. Jo has thus now served the longest, for 15 years, at a time when MNL, now Mouse Genome, has been growing its fastest, and a great debt is owed to her.

In the 1960s and 1970s the factor most influencing the growth of mouse genetics was the development of good methods for studying biochemical polymorphisms. This opened up a new fount of loci for study and this in turn led to developments in the linkage map. In the early days of Mouse News Letter the map consisted of "Linkage Groups", not assigned to chromosomes, and each one consisting of only two or three loci. However, with the advent of biochemical and immunogenetic markers the map grew rapidly. The discovery of chromosome banding, together with a resource of translocations affecting known linkage groups, enabled in the early 1970s the linkage groups to be assigned to chromosomes and the birth of the linkage map as we now know it. Margaret Green provided the linkage map for MNL for many years. In MNL 50 in 1974 she provided a short history of the map, from which one can see that at that time Chromosome 3 still had no loci assigned to it. With the growth in knowledge MNL became less informal. Many contributors continued to send in their news and numerous new genes and linkages were reported in its pages, as a glance at the references in the present Catalogue of Mutant Genes and Polymorphic Loci will show. However, a higher proportion of the pages became devoted to lists. Tony Searle, while editor, organised the computerisation of the gene lists, the first indication of the way in which future growth would lead.

The 1980s saw major changes reflecting the spectacular advances in genetic knowledge resulting from recombinant DNA technology. The gene list and the linkage map, now taken over by Muriel Davisson and Tom Roderick, expanded at an even faster rate, and it was difficult to keep the page numbers within manageable bounds. By 1986, one could pretend no longer that Mouse News Letter was an informal letter. It had become a formal publication of mouse genetics information. A publisher was sought who would maintain the speed of production that MNL had always enjoyed, and also hopefully its economical price. Oxford University Press was chosen, and proved a very successful choice. The Nomenclature Committee formed the Editorial Board, and the number of issues per year was increased from two to three, with the third issue being an Inbred Strains Issue, produced by Michael Festing, replacing the Inbred Strains of Mice, previously produced by Joan Staats.

The journal was run by a company Mouse News Letter Ltd, limited by guarantee and with charitable status. The original directors of the company were Michael Festing, Mary Lyon, Jo Peters and Tony Searle. The company still continues and the present directors are: Steve Brown, Michael Festing, Lizzie Fisher, Mary Lyon and Jo Peters. Publication of MNL (now Mouse Genome) has yielded a small profit. The proceeds have partly been used to fund the production of the journal. In addition, money has been given for young scientists to attend Mouse Genome Conferences. The company will continue as a small charity under the new merged scheme.

The new status as a published journal involved some changes which resulted in a long term alteration in the content of Mouse News Letter. On the one hand MNL now accepted short papers, giving very rapid publication. On the other hand reminder cards that contributions were due were no longer sent out. This was probably an important cause of a decline in contributions, together probably with the publish-or-perish attitude of employers requiring authors to get papers in journals with a high impact factor. Conversely the lists and maps increased inexorably. In keeping with the new field of recombinant DNA work, Rosemary Elliott's list of RFLPs was very valuable, as also Janan Eppig's list of clones and probes. New maps included those of cancer-related genes by Christine Kozak, chromosome aberrations by Colin Beechey and Tony Searle, and the imprinting map by Colin Beechey and Bruce Cattanach. The Chromosome Atlas, showing man-mouse homologies and correspondence between the genetic and G-band maps, replaced the previous linkage map.

The pace of expansion of knowledge increased still further, particularly with the advent of microsatellites. In 1977 a graph of increase in number of mouse loci with time showed exponential growth with a doubling time of around 10 years. Recently the doubling time has decreased to around one to two years. To accommodate the increased pages needed, and to emphasise the new formal status as a journal, the number of issues was increased to 4 per year, and the name was changed to Mouse Genome in 1991. By then it was clear that the long term future of mouse genetics information was an electronic one. Accordingly, an approach from Mammalian Genome for collaboration was welcomed and a merger was arranged. From the start Mouse News Letter was an organ of the Nomenclature Committee and this will be continued in the merged journal. Although the actual lists and maps will be available electronically from the Mouse Genetics Database (MGD), announcements from the Nomenclature Committee on rule changes and so forth will still be published in the merged journal. Furthermore, the journal will still publish short papers on new mutants etc., or announcements from contributors. Thus, the original aim of Mouse News Letter, to provide a means of communicating news of mouse genetics, will still continue in the most efficient form in MGD and Mammalian Genome incorporating Mouse Genome.

References