Cost comparison of the progeny testing assay with zyFISH.

“Additional costs” (defined as costs incurred after breeding two tg/0 mice, which are the same for both assays) associated with the progeny testing assay (PTA, Table 2) for 6 transgene-positive mice of unknown zygosity (tg/?) are compared with additional costs associated with zyFISH (ZyFISH, Figure 2A). “Cost of mice” and “Cost of Housing” are based on the rates for renting cage space per mouse and cage at our animal facility [20]. We incurred 40 days of pre-breeding costs, including housing of putative homozygous littermates post-weaning and cost of prospective mates (6) and mean 60 days of breeding costs, including six breeding cages, each with two mice. “Payroll technician” cost estimations are based on 1 full-time technician paid 90,000 CHF/year working 8 h days. Estimation of cumulative technician time for conducting PCR and running gels for 110 samples in total was 8 h. Estimation of cumulative technician time spent on weaning, biopsies (92 biopsies), mouse health checks and cage changes was 8 h over the 100 days. Cost of “probe,” “hybridization,” and “detection and scoring” includes all reagents, chemicals, enzymes and solutions used for each part of the protocol for seven slides. Cost of “PCR genotyping” includes the cost of Taq polymerase enzyme solution for 110 samples. Costs are reported in Swiss francs (CHF) and are rounded to the first decimal point.