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Multiple origins of the western European house mouse in the Aeolian Archipelago: clues from mtDNA and chromosomes

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Abstract

The expansion of Mus musculus domesticus from its origin has been studied in detail. The colonization routes and times depended on its commensal habits which favoured a rapid and recent dispersal, making it difficult to unravel the expansion pattern. The situation is still obscure in the central Mediterranean area. Mitochondrial D-loop was sequenced for 65 mice from the Aeolian Archipelago and the sixteen haplotypes identified were compared with the 528 available mouse haplotypes. The central Mediterranean phylogeography, the demographic history of the Aeolian mice and the relationships between mtDNA and karyotypes was investigate. Five lineages are present, belonging to five of the haplogroups previously described for the Mediterranean basin, and most individuals fall within the European haplogroups. The Archipelago was subjected to multiple colonizations and chromosomal and molecular data agree in indicating Sicily and Italy as possible sources of colonization in recent times. Nevertheless, the signatures of earlier colonizations might have been lost through extinction and admixing of mice due to human movements. Drastic events during the entire colonization process have led to the present-day random distribution of haplotypes. Furthermore, Salina emerges as an ancestral condition and no relation between karyotype composition and haplotype variability was highlighted.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thanks Giovanni Amori and Mauro Cristaldi that gently provide the samples of mice new to this study from outside the archipelago. Thanks are extended to Flavia Annesi for the helpful support in the lab work and to the two referees that provide helpful comments. E.S. research project was supported by the PhD funds (‘Sapienza’ Universita` di Roma).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology and Biotechnology “Charles Darwin”, “Sapienza” University of Rome, via Borelli 50, 00161, Rome, Italy

    Emanuela Solano, Paolo Franchini, Paolo Colangelo, Ernesto Capanna & Riccardo Castiglia

  2. Lehrstuhl für Zoologie und Evolutionsbiologie, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Universitätstrasse 10, 78457, Konstanz, Germany

    Paolo Franchini

  3. MiPAAF, National Forest Service, CNBF National Centre for Forest Biodiversity, Via Carlo Ederle, 16/a I, 37100, Verona, Italy

    Emanuela Solano & Paolo Colangelo

Authors
  1. Emanuela Solano
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  2. Paolo Franchini
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  3. Paolo Colangelo
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  4. Ernesto Capanna
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  5. Riccardo Castiglia
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Correspondence to Emanuela Solano.

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Solano, E., Franchini, P., Colangelo, P. et al. Multiple origins of the western European house mouse in the Aeolian Archipelago: clues from mtDNA and chromosomes. Biol Invasions 15, 729–739 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-012-0322-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-012-0322-x

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