Abstract: The brown rat, Rattus norvegicus, is both a notorious pest and a frequently used model in biomedical research. By analyzing genome sequences of 12 wild-caught brown rats from their presumed ancestral range in NE China, along with the sequence of a black rat, Rattus rattus, we investigate the selective and demographic forces shaping variation in the genome. We estimate that the recent effective population size (Ne) of this species = 1.24×105, based on silent site diversity. We compare patterns of diversity in these genomes with patterns in mult...
(read more)
Topics: 
Evolutionary biology
Genetics