Title :

Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history

Author(s) :

Yu, He [Auteur]
Jamieson, Alexandra [Auteur]
Hulme-Beaman, Ardern [Auteur]
J. Conroy, Chris [Auteur]
Knight, Becky [Auteur]
Oueslati, Tarek [Auteur]
Histoire, Archéologie et Littérature des Mondes Anciens - UMR 8164 [HALMA]
Cucchi, Thomas [Auteur]
Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements [AASPE]
Vigne, J.-D. [Auteur]
Archéozoologie, archéobotanique : sociétés, pratiques et environnements [AASPE]

Journal title :

Nature Communications

Publisher :

Nature Publishing Group

Publication date :

2022-05-03

ISSN :

2041-1723

HAL domain(s) :

Sciences de l'Homme et Société/Archéologie et Préhistoire
Sciences de l'Homme et Société
Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

English abstract : [en]

The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and ...
Show more >The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat. We then sequence 67 ancient and three modern black rat mitogenomes, and 36 ancient and three modern nuclear genomes from archaeological sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of our newly reported sequences, together with published mitochondrial DNA sequences, confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterranean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.Show less >

Language :

Anglais

Peer reviewed article :

Oui

Audience :

Internationale

Popular science :

Non

Collections :

• Histoire Archéologie Littératures des Mondes Anciens (HALMA) - UMR 8164

Source :

Harvested from HAL