It has been discovered that mouse colonization follows that of Viking colonization. When comparing mitochondrial DNA from mice from the Vikings time, approximately 10th to the 12th century, to present day samples, we are able to see the path these little hitchhikers took to get where they are today. Starting from Norway or the British Isles, they made there way, via Viking transportation, into Iceland and then into Greenland. In the article, a Dr. Eleanor Jones says that, "Human settlement history over the last 1000 years is reflected in the genetic sequence of mouse mitochondrial DNA. We can match the pattern of human populations to that of the house mice."
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Viking Mice
Where there’s a human, there’s a mouse. A house mouse to be exact. ScienceDaily posted an article displaying the “road trip” that house mice have taken with humans. By using genetic techniques on both ancestral and present day mitochondrial DNA from these mice, scientists were able to trace the timeline of mouse history.
It has been discovered that mouse colonization follows that of Viking colonization. When comparing mitochondrial DNA from mice from the Vikings time, approximately 10th to the 12th century, to present day samples, we are able to see the path these little hitchhikers took to get where they are today. Starting from Norway or the British Isles, they made there way, via Viking transportation, into Iceland and then into Greenland. In the article, a Dr. Eleanor Jones says that, "Human settlement history over the last 1000 years is reflected in the genetic sequence of mouse mitochondrial DNA. We can match the pattern of human populations to that of the house mice."
It has been discovered that mouse colonization follows that of Viking colonization. When comparing mitochondrial DNA from mice from the Vikings time, approximately 10th to the 12th century, to present day samples, we are able to see the path these little hitchhikers took to get where they are today. Starting from Norway or the British Isles, they made there way, via Viking transportation, into Iceland and then into Greenland. In the article, a Dr. Eleanor Jones says that, "Human settlement history over the last 1000 years is reflected in the genetic sequence of mouse mitochondrial DNA. We can match the pattern of human populations to that of the house mice."
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This is truly intriguging. I had no idea that the mice lineage goes all the way back to Viking times. Seems mice have been troubling for a long time, but we cannot hate them completely either because we use them has models during drug trials.
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