Abstract
Biological invasions are major anthropogenic changes associated with threats to biodiversity and health. However, what determines the successful establishment and spread of introduced populations remains unclear. Here, we explore several hypotheses linking invasion success and immune phenotype traits, including those based on the evolution of increased competitive ability concept. We compared gene expression profiles between anciently and recently established populations of two major invading species, the house mouse Mus musculus domesticus and the black rat Rattus rattus, in Senegal (West Africa). Transcriptome analyses identified differential expression between anciently and recently established populations for 364 mouse genes and 83 rat genes. All immune-related genes displaying differential expression along the mouse invasion route were overexpressed at three of the four recently invaded sites studied. Complement activation pathway genes were overrepresented among these genes. By contrast, no particular immunological process was found to be overrepresented among the differentially expressed genes of black rat. Changes in transcriptome profiles were thus observed along invasion routes, but with different specific patterns between the two invasive species. These changes may be driven by increases in infection risks at sites recently invaded by the house mouse, and by stochastic events associated with colonization history for the black rat. These results constitute a first step toward the identification of immune eco-evolutionary processes potentially involved in the invasion success of these two rodent species.
Highlights
Biological invasions are major anthropogenic changes associated with threats to biodiversity and health
For the house mouse (3 mismatches/paired read allowed), 85.68% of the reads passing the quality filter mapped to the M. musculus domesticus reference genome, and 1.58% of these reads mapped to multiple regions
For the black rat (R. rattus, for which we allowed 9 mismatches/paired read with the R. norvegicus reference genome), 81.66% of the reads passing the quality filter were mapped to the reference genome of the related R. norvegicus, and 0.98% of these reads mapped to multiple regions of the reference genome
Summary
Biological invasions are major anthropogenic changes associated with threats to biodiversity and health. Changes in transcriptome profiles were observed along invasion routes, but with different specific patterns between the two invasive species These changes may be driven by increases in infection risks at sites recently invaded by the house mouse, and by stochastic events associated with colonization history for the black rat. These results constitute a first step toward the identification of immune eco-evolutionary processes potentially involved in the invasion success of these two rodent species. (EICA)[18] is based on trade-offs between immune traits and other life history traits According to this theory, the loss of parasites that often occurs during the course of invasion should lead to a release of energy resources previously dedicated to anti-parasite defenses. Immune phenotyping is often based on a small number of immune effectors, due to the availability of only small amounts of material (blood, tissue), or the difficulty obtaining immune kits for non-model species
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