Recognition of and efforts to maintain genetic quality lagged behind as laboratory animal genetics was initially only important to geneticists.
Also addressed in the chapter are current monitoring paradigms, or genetic quality control, for mice and rats, including inbred, congenic, outbred, and genetically engineered strains, as well as the role of breeders, vivaria, and end users in genetic quality control.
"They go all the way, don't think twice, it's almost a genetic quality the British teams have.
Here was an easily measured, widely applicable indicator of genetic quality, and females could be shown to gravitate toward it.
And as they get older, men also see a decline in the quantity and genetic quality of sperm.
It therefore seems that calling, as predicted, is an honest and reliable indicator of genetic quality.
Dr Ihle and her colleagues tested the genetic compatibility hypothesis to identify whether females were choosing their mates based on their genetic quality.
That makes some scientists suspect that the surviving forests have lost much of their genetic quality, the molecular muscle that made them dominate the landscape.
"[B]y mating with preferred males, females elevate the fitness of their offspring because these male traits signal heritable genetic quality".
Each woman is born with a finite number of eggs, and the genetic quality and viability of those eggs will diminish as she ages.
For monitoring the genetic quality of inbred strains, a variety of techniques are described.
