Inbred strains (also called
inbred lines, or for animals
linear animals) are individuals of a particular species which are nearly identical to each other in
genotype due to long
inbreeding. Inbred strains of animals are frequently used in laboratories for experiments where for reproducibility of conclusions all the test animals should be as similar as possible. However, for some experiments, genetic diversity in the test population may be desired. Thus outbred strains of most laboratory animals are also available.