Resources for Systems Genetics.

A key characteristic of systems genetics is its reliance on populations that vary to a greater or lesser degree in genetic complexity-from highly admixed populations such as the Collaborative Cross and Diversity Outcross to relatively simple crosses such as sets of consomic strains and reduced complexity crosses. This protocol is intended to help investigators make more informed decisions about choices of resources given different types of questions. We consider factors such as costs, availability, and ease of breeding for common scenarios. In general, we recommend using complementary resources and minimizing depth of resampling of any given genome or strain.