Journal article
Global population divergence and admixture of the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus)
Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences, v 283(1841), p20161762
26 Oct 2016
PMID: 27798305
Abstract
Native to China and Mongolia, the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) now enjoys a worldwide distribution. While black rats and the house mouse tracked the regional development of human agricultural settlements, brown rats did not appear in Europe until the 1500s, suggesting their range expansion was a response to relatively recent increases in global trade. We inferred the global phylogeography of brown rats using 32 k SNPs, and detected 13 evolutionary clusters within five expansion routes. One cluster arose following a southward expansion into Southeast Asia. Three additional clusters arose from two independent eastward expansions: one expansion from Russia to the Aleutian Archipelago, and a second to western North America. Westward expansion resulted in the colonization of Europe from which subsequent rapid colonization of Africa, the Americas and Australasia occurred, and multiple evolutionary clusters were detected. An astonishing degree of fine-grained clustering between and within sampling sites underscored the extent to which urban heterogeneity shaped genetic structure of commensal rodents. Surprisingly, few individuals were recent migrants, suggesting that recruitment into established populations is limited. Understanding the global population structure of R. norvegicus offers novel perspectives on the forces driving the spread of zoonotic disease, and aids in development of rat eradication programmes.
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Details
- Title
- Global population divergence and admixture of the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus)
- Creators
- Emily E Puckett - Fordham UniversityJane Park - Fordham UniversityMatthew Combs - Fordham UniversityMichael J Blum - Tulane UniversityJuliet E Bryant - University of OxfordAdalgisa Caccone - Yale UniversityFederico Costa - Universidade Federal da BahiaEva E Deinum - University of EdinburghAlexandra Esther - Julius Kühn-InstitutChelsea G Himsworth - Government of British ColumbiaPeter D Keightley - University of EdinburghAlbert Ko - Yale UniversityÅke Lundkvist - Uppsala UniversityLorraine M McElhinney - Animal and Plant Health AgencySerge Morand - Centre d’Infectiologie Christophe Mérieux of LaosJudith Robins - University of AucklandJames Russell - University of AucklandTanja M Strand - Uppsala UniversityOlga Suarez - Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y TécnicasLisa Yon - University of NottinghamJason Munshi-South - Fordham University
- Publication Details
- Proceedings of the Royal Society. B, Biological sciences, v 283(1841), p20161762
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Grant note
- R01 TW009504 / FIC NIH HHS UL1 TR001863 / NCATS NIH HHS U01 AI088752 / NIAID NIH HHS R01 AI121207 / NIAID NIH HHS
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000386492600014
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84993949240
- Other Identifier
- 991021903865804721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Biology
- Ecology
- Evolutionary Biology