A multivariate analysis of subline divergence in the shape of the mandible in C57BL/Gr mice

Abstract

SUMMARYThe shape of the mandible in. nine sublines of C57BL/Gr, seven other strains of ‘C57 ancestry’ and four unrelated strains was studied by multivariate techniques. The generalized distance function was used to classify individuals in the groups which they most closely resembled. The degree of misclassification depended on the pedigree relationship between strains and sublines. The generalized distance between pairs of subline centeroids was also highly correlated (r = 0·60) with the number of generations between them. A canonical variate analysis was used to reduce the dimensionality so that a graphical display of the relationships between strains and sublines could be made. The results agreed closely with the classification analysis. It was concluded that the shape of the mandible could be used for subline identification though the accuracy of this technique depends on how closely the sublines are related.