RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (<em>Rattus rattus</em>) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.04.14.439553
DO 10.1101/2021.04.14.439553
A1 He Yu
A1 Alexandra Jamieson
A1 Ardern Hulme-Beaman
A1 Chris J. Conroy
A1 Becky Knight
A1 Camilla Speller
A1 Hiba Al-Jarah
A1 Heidi Eager
A1 Alexandra Trinks
A1 Gamini Adikari
A1 Henriette Baron
A1 Beate Böhlendorf-Arslan
A1 Wijerathne Bohingamuwa
A1 Alison Crowther
A1 Thomas Cucchi
A1 Kinie Esser
A1 Jeffrey Fleisher
A1 Louisa Gidney
A1 Elena Gladilina
A1 Pavel Gol’din
A1 Steven M. Goodman
A1 Sheila Hamilton-Dyer
A1 Richard Helm
A1 Chris Hillman
A1 Nabil Kallala
A1 Hanna Kivikero
A1 Zsófia E. Kovács
A1 Günther Karl Kunst
A1 René Kyselý
A1 Anna Linderholm
A1 Bouthéina Maraoui-Telmini
A1 Arturo Morales-Muñiz
A1 Mariana Nabais
A1 Terry O’Connor
A1 Tarek Oueslati
A1 Eréndira M. Quintana Morales
A1 Kerstin Pasda
A1 Jude Perera
A1 Nimal Perera
A1 Silvia Radbauer
A1 Joan Ramon
A1 Eve Rannamäe
A1 Joan Sanmartí Grego
A1 Edward Treasure
A1 Silvia Valenzuela-Lamas
A1 Inge van der Jagt
A1 Wim Van Neer
A1 Jean-Denis Vigne
A1 Thomas Walker
A1 Stephanie Wynne-Jones
A1 Jørn Zeiler
A1 Keith Dobney
A1 Nicole Boivin
A1 Jeremy B. Searle
A1 Ben Krause-Kyora
A1 Johannes Krause
A1 Greger Larson
A1 David Orton
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/04/14/2021.04.14.439553.abstract
AB The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we generated a de novo genome assembly of the black rat, 67 ancient black rat mitogenomes and 36 ancient nuclear genomes from sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of mitochondrial DNA confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.