Until recently, phenotypic analysis of mouse
lines carrying natural or induced mutations has been limited by lack of
accurate, nondestructive in utero imaging techniques. The need for such a
tool has become increasingly important as molecular biologists become
reliant upon mutagenesis in the laboratory mouse to understand the
genetic underpinnings of human disease. For developmental biologists,
the added burden of noninvasively imaging the phenotypic consequences of
genetic alterations in embryonic mice has been a great limitation.
