Cityscape Genomics of Rats in New York City

褐鼠(又称挪威鼠或下水道鼠)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破坏。城市里的老鼠数量特别多，但人们对它们的生物学知之甚少。这项研究将利用纽约市臭名昭著的老鼠种群，解决关于建筑环境中发生的进化和生态过程的新的和重要的问题。老鼠在城市中移动时会使用哪些特定类型的城市基础设施，如下水道或地铁？老鼠的活动是否与人类社区的社会经济学有关？纽约老鼠是从哪里来的，它们与世界各地的其他种群有什么关系？自从老鼠在18世纪入侵纽约以来，它们是如何进化的？这个项目的结果也将被用来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被用来了解棕鼠从局部到全球的进化。首先，基于纽约市结构和社会经济特征的景观建模将揭示纽约市当地人口结构和老鼠迁徙的驱动因素。接下来，我们将检查世界各地老鼠基因组中编码的历史种群大小变化和祖先的签名。在纽约市，还将识别与最近适应城市环境有关的基因。最后，将使用从过去125年收集的博物馆老鼠标本中提取的DNA来证实这些进化变化。

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.