Abstract
The dynamics and variability of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were compared in one commensal and one feral population of the house mouse (Mus domesticus) in Israel. The rate of turnover was high in both populations (the average proportion of new or discontinuing mice per trapping session was about 50%), as was the level of heterogeneity of mtDNA: using six restriction enzymes, 18 mice from the commensal population had eight different haplotypes (the degree of heterogeneity, h, was 0.802), and 412 mice from the feral population had 16 (h= 0.894). These results suggest that neither population was composed of rigid breeding units made up of relatives, but that in the commensal population the few neighbouring resident mice that had the same mtDNA haplotype may have been siblings.
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