scholarly journals House mouse Mus musculus dispersal in East Eurasia inferred from 98 newly determined complete mitochondrial genome sequences

Heredity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 126 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yue Li ◽  
Kazumichi Fujiwara ◽  
Naoki Osada ◽  
Yosuke Kawai ◽  
Toyoyuki Takada ◽  
...  

AbstractThe Eurasian house mouse Mus musculus is useful for tracing prehistorical human movement related to the spread of farming. We determined whole mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences (ca. 16,000 bp) of 98 wild-derived individuals of two subspecies, M. m. musculus (MUS) and M. m. castaneus (CAS). We revealed directional dispersals reaching as far as the Japanese Archipelago from their homelands. Our phylogenetic analysis indicated that the eastward movement of MUS was characterised by five step-wise regional extension events: (1) broad spatial expansion into eastern Europe and the western part of western China, (2) dispersal to the eastern part of western China, (3) dispersal to northern China, (4) dispersal to the Korean Peninsula and (5) colonisation and expansion in the Japanese Archipelago. These events were estimated to have occurred during the last 2000–18,000 years. The dispersal of CAS was characterised by three events: initial divergences (ca. 7000–9000 years ago) of haplogroups in northernmost China and the eastern coast of India, followed by two population expansion events that likely originated from the Yangtze River basin to broad areas of South and Southeast Asia, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Indonesia (ca. 4000–6000 years ago) and to Yunnan, southern China and the Japanese Archipelago (ca. 2000–3500). This study provides a solid framework for the spatiotemporal movement of the human-associated organisms in Holocene Eastern Eurasia using whole mtDNA sequences, reliable evolutionary rates and accurate branching patterns. The information obtained here contributes to the analysis of a variety of animals and plants associated with prehistoric human migration.

Impact ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (7) ◽  
pp. 56-58
Author(s):  
Naruya Saitou

The ebb and flow of human migration across the planet can nowadays be probed with advanced archaeology, linguistics, anthropology and genomics. Together, these can provide a convincing picture of the various divergences and convergences of different human populations across vast areas. It is now possible to better understand how, why and where a particular group or society arose. Professor Naruya Saitou of the Population Genetics Laboratory at the National Institute of Genetics in Mishima has dedicated his career to the synthesis of these disciplines. The current focus of his research is on understanding the origins and formation of the Yaponesian people. This broad term was coined by writer Toshio Shimao in 1960s to encompass the diverse peoples of the Japanese Archipelago over its many thousands of years of inhabitation. Saitou's research is helping to uncover Japan's ancient past.


2018 ◽  
pp. 5-43
Author(s):  
Yongjoon Chang

The Japanese archipelago began to be occupied by people for the first time after the people migrated from the Korean Peninsula in the Paleolithic Age. Peopling of Japan is presumed to be around the middle Paleolithic or late Paleolithic. There was the Korea strait between the two areas, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelgo, and it used to be limited for coming and going for the people. However, the sea level changes throughout the Upper Pleistocene caused different patterns in human migration and interaction. In both areas, similar types of stone tools including tanged point, bilateral point, stemmed point, and composite point have been excavated in the late Paleolithic period. It is assumed that these types of stone tools might have been transmitted to Japan from the Korean peninsula. Paleolithic people of the Japanese archipelago were influenced by the stone technique of the Korean peninsula, but made their tools with the local raw materials. Paleolithic people utilized blades and microblades which were common in Northeast Asia. The various shapes of projectile points of the Japanese archipelago found in the Late Paleolithic layers could be influenced by the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, it can be assumed that the hunting method to throw a spear were transferred from the Korean peninsula to the Japanese archipelago based of the technological evidence. The manufacturing techniques of the points verify that they were from the Korean peninsula eventhough the tools were made of the local raw materials. Based on the technological tradition, I conclude that the people who lived on the Korean Peninsula crossed the Korea Strait for the first time during the end of the Middle to the Late Paleolithic.


1976 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 191-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Robert Lynch ◽  
Carol Becker Lynch ◽  
Marjory Dube ◽  
Cynthia Allen

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan Phifer-Rixey ◽  
Michael W Nachman

The house mouse, Mus musculus, was established in the early 1900s as one of the first genetic model organisms owing to its short generation time, comparatively large litters, ease of husbandry, and visible phenotypic variants. For these reasons and because they are mammals, house mice are well suited to serve as models for human phenotypes and disease. House mice in the wild consist of at least three distinct subspecies and harbor extensive genetic and phenotypic variation both within and between these subspecies. Wild mice have been used to study a wide range of biological processes, including immunity, cancer, male sterility, adaptive evolution, and non-Mendelian inheritance. Despite the extensive variation that exists among wild mice, classical laboratory strains are derived from a limited set of founders and thus contain only a small subset of this variation. Continued efforts to study wild house mice and to create new inbred strains from wild populations have the potential to strengthen house mice as a model system.


2005 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dai Fukui ◽  
Kishio Maeda ◽  
David A. Hill ◽  
Sumiko Matsumura ◽  
Naoki Agetsuma

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