The house mouse, Mus musculus, has been inextricably linked with humans since the beginning of civilization — wherever farmed food was stored, mice would be found. Many of the advances in twentieth-century biology owe a huge debt to the mouse, which has become the favoured model animal in most spheres of research. With the completion of the draft sequence of its genome published in this issue, the mouse promises to continue to provide us with an essential resource for all aspects of biology. In this timeline, we chart the key events in the history of the mouse that led to this landmark achievement.
