Use of Rattus to Track Human Migration

研究小组成员将合作使用岛屿黑鼠作为生物代理，以了解人类穿越海洋的历史。通过对人类航海者引入岛屿的物种进行基因调查，应该可以确定它们是何时引入的。研究小组正在通过对入侵黑鼠的基因组分析，调查长距离海上移动的起源。人口基因组学的最新进展，特别是单碱基对DNA变化的高通量基因分型，全基因组测序和人口统计学历史的估计，使人们有可能推断的地理起源和时间大鼠引进当代样本。这种方法将用于本项目中，以了解大鼠何时以及从何处首次到达岛屿环境。确定这种老鼠种群的古老性将有助于考古学家确定未来研究的地点。该项目将显著改变对远程航行网络及其所有变革性文化、经济和生态影响的理解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Research team members will collaborate to use island black rats as bioproxies to understand the history of human voyages across oceanic expanses. Through genetic investigation of species introduced to islands by human voyagers it should be possible to determine when they were introduced.The research team is investigating the origin of long distance maritime movement using genomic analysis of invasive black rats. Recent advances in population genomics, specifically high-throughput genotyping of single base pair DNA changes, whole genome sequencing, and statistical estimation of demographic histories, have made it possible to infer the geographic origins and timing of rat introductions from contemporary samples. Such approaches will be used in this project to learn when, and from where, rats first reached an island setting. Establishing the antiquity of such rat populations will help archaeologists determine sites for future research. This project will significantly revise understanding of remote voyaging networks with all their transformative cultural, economic, and ecological impacts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.