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A pair of text and nomenclature Attributes are used, since standard nomenclatures typically define values that are constructed from multiple components, and do not distinguish between value and meaning. These are distinct from the precoordinated codes used in Strain Code Sequence (0010,0219).

Some strain and genetic modification nomenclatures make use of superscripts. To encode these superscripts consistently in an unformatted string, the convention of enclosing the superscript text in "<" and ">" pairs may be used. E.g., "D2.B6-Ahr^b-1/J" would be encoded as "D2.B6-Ahr<b-1>/J".

Relevant information that is not encoded in the formal description of the strain (i.e., not defined in the nomenclature used), such as the number of transgenes, may be encoded as plain text in Strain Additional Information (0010,0218).

The MGI-Guidelines for Nomenclature of Mouse and Rat Strains recommends the use of the laboratory codes assigned by the Institute of Laboratory Animal Research (ILAR). See the International Laboratory Code Registry (ILCR) http://dels.nas.edu/global/ilar/lab-codes.

Because allele names are closely tied to gene names/symbols it is necessary to have a unique and permanent code for any allele that is part of a genotype of interest. For mice, MGI is the authoritative source of the nomenclature for genes and alleles and maintains unique, permanent codes for these entities. The MGI provides a report of all precoordinated MGI codes that are assigned to specific strains at http://www.informatics.jax.org/downloads/reports/MGI_Strain.rpt. These may be used in Strain Code Sequence (0010,0219) and Genetic Modifications Code Sequence (0010,0229) with a coding scheme of "MGI".

Another source of pre-coordinated codes for strains is the NCI Thesaurus, which includes a snapshot of strains from the International Mouse Strain Resource (IMSR), as children of (C14421, NCIt, "Inbred Mouse Strains"). See http://ncit.nci.nih.gov/ncitbrowser/pages/concept_details.jsf?dictionary=NCI_Thesaurus&code=C14421.

For example, a C57BL/6J mouse strain from The Jackson Laboratory might be identified as:

For example, a FVB/N mouse with a Tg(MMTV-Erbb2*)NDL2-5Mul transgene might be identified as:

In this example, a precoordinated code for the genetic modification is defined in MGI, but not for the mouse strain.