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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution. |
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Posted on 02/01/2008 2:42:13 PM PST by blam
Rat genes shed light on ancient human migrations
15:16 01 February 2008
NewScientist.com news service
Emma Young
One of humanity’s greatest scourges – the black rat – may help health experts track the spread of disease.
New work probing Rattus rattus’s origins and historical movements should help health officials track its ongoing dispersal – and might also explain anomalies in its spread of diseases such as typhus and plague.
Ken Aplin at CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems in Canberra, Australia, and colleagues have analysed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of 170 black rats from 76 regions in 32 countries. They also surveyed other Rattus species to probe the animals’ genetic links and origins.
The team found six lineages within an expanded R. rattus group, which includes a few other species. These lineages all originated in Asia – in India and the Himalayan region, Thailand, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, Indonesia, and East Asia.
Human association
The work reveals four major episodes of global rat expansion, all associated with human migration or trade.
About 20,000 years ago, one lineage moved from western India to the Middle East and from there to Europe. This was probably associated with the growth of trade networks during the Neolithic and Bronze Age. This lineage then spread to Africa and the Americas with European explorers.
The East Asian lineage, meanwhile, arrived in Micronesia, from Taiwan via Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, only 3500 years ago.
The new DNA dataset should not only help researchers investigating the history of human migration and trade, but also aid in the monitoring and management of the spread of black rats – and the diseases they carry – today, says Aplin.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
GGG Ping.
I hear ‘Rat genes move left.
The R1Bs are the ones to watch. ;-)
ping
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Thanks Blam. Rodent you know this would happen? |
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Well, rat now is as good as any time.
I mouse have some material around here about rat genes...
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| GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach | |
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Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution. |
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