Problem:
When a biologist is talking about a genetically engineered mouse strain which is a "tool strain",
Required:
Question 1: What does that mean?What is the exact definition of a tool strain?
Question 2: What is the difference between a tool strain and any other mouse strain? Provide all the differences.
Question 3: How are tool strains connected to recombinase techniques? Does using a recombinase automatically create a tool strain?
Question 4: Are the properties "tool strain" and "recombinase containing strain" independent from each other? Please explain.
If it is important, the context is mouse (and possibly other animal) strains used in cancer research.
It would help if you could keep the explanation high-level. I only have high-school biology knowledge and I am trying to make sense of the requirements for a software application for use by biologists.