Peter Alaca
Guest
|
 Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:08 am Post subject: Mice and man |
 |
|
..
J.B. Searle et al (2008)
Of mice and (Viking?) men: phylogeography of British and
Irish house mice
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
"The west European subspecies of house mouse (Mus
musculus domesticus) has gained much of its current
widespread distribution through commensalism with
humans. This means that the phylogeography of M. m.
domesticus should reflect patterns of human
movements.
We studied restriction fragment length polymorphism
(RFLP) and DNA sequence variations in mouse
mitochondrial (mt) DNA throughout the British Isles
(328 mice from 105 localities, including previously
published data).
There is a major mtDNA lineage revealed by both RFLP
and sequence analyses, which is restricted to the
northern and western peripheries of the British
Isles, and also occurs in Norway. This distribution
of the `Orkney' lineage fits well with the sphere of
influence of the Norwegian Vikings and was probably
generated through inadvertent transport by them.
To form viable populations, house mice would have
required large human settlements such as the
Norwegian Vikings founded.
The other parts of the British Isles (essentially
most of mainland Britain) are characterized by house
mice with different mtDNA sequences, some of which
are also found in Germany, and which probably reflect
both Iron Age movements of people and mice and
earlier development of large human settlements. MtDNA
studies on house mice have the potential to reveal
novel aspects of human history."
Source: http://tinyurl.com/49bh4o (/journals.royalsociety.org)
See also "'Viking mouse' invasion tracked"
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7645908.stm>
--
p.a. |
|
