Mulling over mouse models

The problems bedeviling the development of mouse models for genetic disorders are discussed in two articles in the Sep 1992 Nature Genetics. Karen Steel and Richard Smith report the failure to breed a mouse model of the autosomal dominant condition Waardenburg's syndrome that would mirror the ear defects and deafness that are the chief human consequences of this disorder. T. Jordan and colleagues examine a similar failure to devise a mouse model for human aniridia. Learning why these disorders affect mice so differently from how they affect humans may increase knowledge of genetic variation.