Abstract
The house mouse (Mus musculus) provides a fascinating system for studying both the genomic basis of reproductive isolation, and the patterns of human-mediated dispersal. New Zealand has a complex history of mouse invasions, and the living descendants of these invaders have genetic ancestry from all three subspecies, although most are primarily descended from M. m. domesticus. We used the GigaMUGA genotyping array (approximately 135 000 loci) to describe the genomic ancestry of 161 mice, sampled from 34 locations from across New Zealand (and one Australian city—Sydney). Of these, two populations, one in the south of the South Island, and one on Chatham Island, showed complete mitochondrial lineage capture, featuring two different lineages of M. m. castaneus mitochondrial DNA but with only M. m. domesticus nuclear ancestry detectable. Mice in the northern and southern parts of the North Island had small traces (approx. 2–3%) of M. m. castaneus nuclear ancestry, and mice in the upper South Island had approximately 7–8% M. m. musculus nuclear ancestry including some Y-chromosomal ancestry—though no detectable M. m. musculus mitochondrial ancestry. This is the most thorough genomic study of introduced populations of house mice yet conducted, and will have relevance to studies of the isolation mechanisms separating subspecies of mice.
Highlights
IntroductionThe house mouse, Mus musculus, provides a powerful model system for understanding evolution, and is arguably the best mammalian model for studies of the genomic basis for reproductive isolation during the early stages of speciation
The house mouse, Mus musculus, provides a powerful model system for understanding evolution, and is arguably the best mammalian model for studies of the genomic basis for reproductive isolation during the early stages of speciation. It includes at least three closely related subspecies with parapatric distributions: M. m. musculus found in Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, M. m. castaneus in Southeast Asia and India, and M. m. domesticus in western Europe, the Near East and northern Africa [1]. These three subspecies rapidly diverged in allopatry around 350 000 years ago [2,3,4], and evidence suggests that M. m. castaneus and M. m. musculus are more closely related to each other than either is to M. m. domesticus [5,6]
Using the GigaMUGA single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyping array, we have significantly expanded our knowledge of the genomic diversity and colonization history of mice in New Zealand—highlighting the need to go beyond mitochondrial markers to trace biological invasions
Summary
The house mouse, Mus musculus, provides a powerful model system for understanding evolution, and is arguably the best mammalian model for studies of the genomic basis for reproductive isolation during the early stages of speciation. It includes at least three closely related subspecies with parapatric distributions: M. m. Musculus that stretches from Denmark to the Black Sea in central Europe [9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18] This hybrid zone is young, with mice having colonized this area around 3000 years ago [19,20]. Other possible domesticus/castaneus hybrid zones in Iran [23,24,25] and in Indonesia [26] have produced only preliminary results, because these regions are complex, supporting multiple (and potentially undescribed) subspecies [24], and because comprehensive nuclear loci have not been used to look at the levels of admixture across the genomes
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