An animal shelter in New Hampshire found itself overwhelmed by hundreds of domestic mice last week when a man surrendered the pets at the facility after they had bred out of control in his care.

The most detailed genetic maps to date of classical lab mouse strains reveal limited genetic diversity and overwhelmingly originate from a single species of domestic mouse, the researchers report.

Compared with wild-derived strains, most of today's classical lab strains have limited genetic diversity and overwhelmingly originate from a single species of domestic mouse, the researchers report.