All mice were group housed (2–5 mice in same sex cages) and maintained on a 12:12 light/dark cycle at University of Tennessee Health and Science Center (UTHSC) for the first set of 67 BXD RI mice and at University of Memphis for the second set of 26 BXD RI mice. When mice were sacrificed for tissue harvest, they were anesthetized using Avertin (1.25% 2,2,2- tribromoethanol and 0.8% tert-pentyl alcohol in water; 0.8–1.0 ml, i.p.) and killed via cervical dislocation. All animal work and experimental protocols for this specific study were approved by the UTHSC Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and the Univeristy of Memphis Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) following NIH guidelines.
