One of the initial motivations to use recombinant inbred strains is that expensive genotype data can be accumulated and reused – greatly simplifying mapping studies.
[3] As genotyping became progressively less expensive and more accurate the main advantage of using recombinant inbred strains and other genetic reference panels shifted to the ability to assemble massive and coherent databases on phenotypes (e.g., the GeneNetwork web service), and to use these coherent open-source data sets for large-scale collaborative research projects in predictive medicine and plant and animal research.
The small panel of 8 CXB strains was originally used to determine if the Major Histocompatibility (MHC) locus on proximal chromosome 17 was a key factor in different immune responses such as tissue rejection.
The methods used to determine the locations of recombinations relied on visible markers (coat color phenotypes such as the C and B loci) and the electrophoretic mobility of proteins.
Somewhat larger families of recombinant inbred strains were generated concurrently by Benjamin Taylor to map Mendelian and other major effect loci.