THE ADAPTABILITY OF THE HOUSE MOUSE
THE ADAPTABILITY OF THE HOUSE MOUSE
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DOI：
10.1038/scientificamerican0384-116
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发表时间：
1984-01-01
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
BRONSON, FH
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
BRONSON, FH
家鼠是人类的机会主义共生动物，有着辉煌的全球殖民历史。共生体与其他物种密切相关地生活和进食，既不会使其受益，也不会直接伤害它。家鼠大约在 8,000 至 10,000 年前开始在亚洲草原上与人类共存。从那时起，它在很大程度上是通过人们无意中提供的交通，在每一个主要陆地和大多数小陆地上建立起来的。它侵扰从赤道到副极地地区的住宅、商业机构、粮仓和其他附属建筑。它可以生活在不同的人造气候中，例如中央供暖管道和冷冻食品储物柜。然而，家鼠并不是严格意义上的共生动物。在许多地方，它已经恢复了野生状态，完全独立于人类生活。在这种野生模式中，它可以在令人惊讶的多样化栖息地中找到：珊瑚环礁、草原、沙漠、淡水沼泽、海滨沙丘和高山山谷。该物种在新环境殖民方面取得的巨大成功使其成为生殖生理学家极大兴趣的课题。被引入一个全新的环境是一回事，而进入一个全新的环境是一回事。能够在那里繁殖并建立一个新的种群则完全是另一回事。家鼠在全球人造和自然栖息地的分布表明其具有极高的繁殖适应性，可能是哺乳动物中最极端的。在这里，我将主要讨论一套独特而灵活的繁殖适应，它们构成了家鼠极其成功的殖民策略的核心。然而，在完全不同的层面上，我将讨论实验室中的实验如何补充现场观察，反之亦然。事实证明，这两种方法本身都不足以实现对生殖的理解。
The house mouse is an opportunis tic commensal of human beings that has a spectacular history of global colonization. A commensal lives and feeds in close association with an other species without either benefiting it or harming it directly. Mus domesficus began its coexistence with humans per haps 8,000 to 10,000 years ago on the steppes of Asia. Since then, in large part through transportation unwittingly pro vided by people, it has established itself on every major landmass and most of the minor ones. It infests homes, com mercial establishments, granaries and other outbuildings from the Equator to the subpolar regions. It can live in man made climates as different as central heating ducts and frozen-food lockers. Yet the house mouse is not a strict commensal. In many places it has re verted to a wild existence, where it lives in total independence of humans. In this feral pattern it can be found in a surpris ing diversity of habitats: coral atolls, grasslands, deserts, freshwater marshes, seashore dunes and alpine valleys. The outstanding success of the spe cies in colonizing new environments has made it a subject of great interest to re productive physiologists. To be intro duced into a radically new environment is one thing; to be able to reproduce there and so to establish a new popula tion is quite another. The planetwide spread of the house mouse in both man made and natural habitats suggests an extreme reproductive adaptability, probably the most extreme among the mammals. Here I shall mainly discuss the uniquely flexible set of reproductive adaptations that make up the core of the house mouse's immensely successful colonization strategy. At an entirely dif ferent level, however, I shall be discuss ing how experiments in the laboratory can complement observations in the field and vice versa. Neither approach by itself has proved adequate in achiev ing an understanding of the reproduc-