Colony Management

Mice Log and Availability

The “Mice log” tab and “Mice available” tabs are for ALL LAB MEMBERS

  1. To see which mice are available, refer to the “Mice available” tab. a. Mice that do not have any notes in the “Claim” column are available for use. b. Each person is responsible for double checking the genotypes of mice they intend to use! i. Gel images are located in the LabArx genotyping folder. ii. To find which pages the images are located, look at the “Date of LabArx Page” column in the colony sheet “genotyping” tab.
  2. To claim mice for your use, indicate so in the “Claim” column of the “Mice available” tab.
  3. After mice have been sacrificed: a. Go to the “Mice log” tab and log all relevant information. b. Then, go to the “Mice available” tab and delete the respective mice. c. Lastly, go to the individual mating tabs and delete the respective mice. This is the only time you will edit the individual mating tabs.

Genotyping

The “Genotyping” tab is for Kelly, Cass, and Rachel to update for record-keeping purposes

Kelly/Rachel:

  1. Tail snip pups ~14 days old → box in 4 degrees fridge and include date on tubes!
  2. Fill in the following columns in the colony sheet “genotyping” tab: Exp Category Mating CC Genotype (the genes Cass should look for) DOB pups Tag#/Sex Parents
  3. In the LabArx “genotyping” folder: a. Create a new page and title it as such: “[date] - needs to be genotyped” b. Copy the template below for the mice to be genotyped: i. CC[mating cage card #] M[tag#] [M’s genotype] (DOB [M’s date]) x F[tag#] [F’s genotype] (DOB [F’s date]), litter DOB: [date] ii. Example: CC3026459 M1652R R26-LSL-Cas9 (homo) EGFP (homo) (DOB 2/6/24) x F1621L vGLUT2-Cre (homo), litter DOB: 8/26/24 c. Record the date of the LabArx page in the colony sheet “genotyping” tab.
  4. Notify the colony management channel on Slack that tail snips have been submitted for genotyping

Cass:

  1. Run gels → Image → Annotate ladder and mice IDs
  2. Upload gel images to LabArx and delete “- needs to be genotyped” from title of page once completed.
  3. Write in genotype results in the colony sheet “genotyping” tab.
  4. Highlight mice IDs that have been genotyped
  5. Notify colony management channel on Slack that genotyping results have been uploaded.

Kelly/Rachel:

  1. Write in genotype results on individual mating tabs of colony sheet
  2. Wean pups ~21 days old and write cage card info in individual mating tabs of colony sheet.

Mating

Individual mating tabs (e.g. “vGLUT2-Cas9) and the “Matings” tab are for Kelly to update and refer to for colony management and record-keeping.

Other lab members will only update individual mating tabs to delete mice that have been sacrificed.

Colony management

  1. Monitor mating cages for pregnant females and separate them into their own cage

Update the CC# column in the individual mating tabs to keep track of where each mouse is located

  1. Once a litter has dropped, notify the colony management channel on slack, and upload the individual mating tabs with the following information: Litter DOB Weaning date Litter age

Also update the “All litters dropped” column

  1. Pups ~14 days old: tail snip and ear tag

Record tag IDs in the individual mating tabs and “genotyping” tab

  1. Order cage cards at least 2 business days before the wean date.
  2. Pups ~21 days old: wean mice

Go to the “Mice available” tab and add the mice that have been weaned, along with all relevant information.

Once breeders have been retired, go to the “Matings log” tab and copy + paste all relevant information from the individual mating tabs.