Cityscape Genomics of Rats in New York City

褐鼠（也称为挪威鼠或下水道鼠）是世界上最常见的哺乳动物之一，对人类健康和基础设施造成重大损害。特别是城市拥有非常大的老鼠种群，但对它们的生物学知之甚少。这项研究将解决新的和重要的问题，进化和生态过程中发生的建筑环境中使用臭名昭著的老鼠种群在纽约市。老鼠在城市中移动时使用的是什么样的城市基础设施，比如下水道或地铁？老鼠的活动与人类社区的社会经济学有关吗？纽约市的老鼠来自哪里，它们与世界各地的其他种群有什么关系？自从老鼠在世纪入侵纽约市以来，它们是如何进化的？该项目的成果也将用于通过资助艺术项目和创新的课程材料向学生和公众介绍进化生物学。几种互补的基因组方法将用于了解棕色大鼠从局部到全球范围的进化。首先，基于纽约市的结构和社会经济特征的景观建模将揭示纽约市内当地人口结构和老鼠运动的驱动因素。接下来，将检查来自世界各地的大鼠基因组中编码的历史种群规模变化和祖先的特征。在纽约市，还将确定参与最近适应城市环境的基因。最后，这些进化变化将使用从过去125年收集的博物馆老鼠标本中提取的DNA进行证实。

Brown rats (also known as Norway or sewer rats) are one of the most common mammals in the world, and cause significant damage to human health and infrastructure. Cities in particular harbor very large rat populations, but their biology is poorly known. This study will address novel and important questions about the evolutionary and ecological processes occurring in the built environment using the infamous rat population in New York City. What specific types of urban infrastructure, such as sewers or subways, do rats use to move through the city? Are rat movements associated with socioeconomics of human neighborhoods? Where did NYC rats come from, and how are they related to other populations around the world? How have rats evolved since they invaded NYC in the 18th century? Results from this project will also be used to introduce students and the public to evolutionary biology by funding art projects and innovative curricular materials.Several complementary genomic approaches will be used to understand the evolution of brown rats from local to global scales. First, landscape modeling based on structural and socioeconomic characteristics of NYC will shed light on the drivers of local population structure and movements of rats within NYC. Next, signatures of historical population size changes and ancestry that are encoded in the genomes of rats from around the world will then be examined. Within NYC, genes involved in recent adaptation to the urban environment will also be identified. Finally, these evolutionary changes will be confirmed using DNA extracted from museum specimens of rats collected over the last 125 years.