Strain nomenclature
Paste a mouse or rat strain name; the tool explains each part. Or build a name of the right form.
Nothing you enter is sent: your data stays on your device.
Decoded name
Paste a strain name, or start from an example. Each part gets its label: background, allele, laboratory…
The tool checks the form of the name, not its registration. To register a strain: MGI (mouse) or RGD (rat).
How it’s calculated
Method
The tool reads the name from left to right and ties each part to a rule of the nomenclature guidelines, with its section. What it does not recognise is marked “not recognised”, never guessed.
Strain abbreviations come from the two official tables (F1 hybrids, congenics), laboratory codes from a short list checked in the ILAR registry, gene names from a few genes checked on MGI and RGD. Anything else is checked for form only.
The builder writes the name the guidelines give for the chosen kind, then decodes it: a built name and a decoded name have the same parts.
Limits
- Mouse and rat only. Rat names have no abbreviation table: strain symbols are used as they are.
- The tool checks the form of a name, not that it is registered. Only MGI (mouse) and RGD (rat) register names.
- Not decoded: recombinant inbred and recombinant congenic strains, F2 and backcross hybrids, genotypes (+/+), chromosomal aberrations. Consomic and conplastic strains, closed colonies and a few other kinds are recognised but not split.
- Gene names are shown for a few verified genes only; any other gene links to a search in MGI or RGD.
- Laboratory codes: a short list checked in the ILAR registry. Other codes link to the registry; no holder is guessed.
- The backcross count (N10) is written beside the name, never in it (§ 5.2).
Sources
- Guidelines for Nomenclature of Mouse and Rat Strains: revised September 2024, International Committee on Standardized Genetic Nomenclature for Mice and Rat Genome and Nomenclature Committee; the kinds of strains and their separators.
- Guidelines for Nomenclature of Genes, Genetic Markers, Alleles, and Mutations in Mouse and Rat: revised September 2024; gene, allele and transgene symbols.
- Standard Mouse Strain Abbreviations for use in Congenic Nomenclature: Mouse Genome Informatics; the official background abbreviations (B6, 129P2…).
- ILAR - Search Labcodes: Institute for Laboratory Animal Research; the laboratory codes and their holders.
- Rat Nomenclature Guidelines: Rat Genome Database; rat strains and genes.
- MGI Quick Search tips: angle brackets for superscript: Mouse Genome Informatics; angle brackets for the superscript in plain text.
These tools help you plan. They replace neither your protocol nor your animal care committee.