Departments of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and Medicine, School of Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, School of Biological Sciences, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92697, USA.
Sci Rep. 2019 Nov 26;9(1):17618. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-54389-3.
The cricetine rodents Peromyscus leucopus and P. maniculatus are key reservoirs for several zoonotic diseases in North America. We determined the complete circular mitochondrial genome sequences of representatives of 3 different stock colonies of P. leucopus, one stock colony of P. maniculatus and two wild populations of P. leucopus. The genomes were syntenic with that of the murids Mus musculus and Rattus norvegicus. Phylogenetic analysis confirmed that these two Peromyscus species are sister taxa in a clade with P. polionotus and also uncovered a distinction between P. leucopus populations in the eastern and the central United States. In one P. leucopus lineage four extended regions of mitochondrial pseudogenes were identified in the nuclear genome. RNA-seq analysis revealed transcription of the entire genome and differences from controls in the expression profiles of mitochondrial genes in the blood, but not in liver or brain, of animals infected with the zoonotic pathogen Borrelia hermsii. PCR and sequencing of the D-loop of the mitochondrion identified 32 different haplotypes among 118 wild P. leucopus at a Connecticut field site. These findings help to further establish P. leucopus as a model organism for studies of emerging infectious diseases, ecology, and in other disciplines.
白足鼠和纹鼠是北美的几种人畜共患病的关键宿主。我们测定了 3 个不同种群的白足鼠、1 个种群的纹鼠以及 2 个白足鼠野生种群的代表的完整的圆形线粒体基因组序列。这些基因组与鼠科的小家鼠和褐家鼠的基因组具有同线性。系统发育分析证实，这两种白足鼠是与纹鼠和波氏白足鼠亲缘关系密切的姐妹种，同时还揭示了美国东部和中部白足鼠种群之间的区别。在一个白足鼠谱系中，在核基因组中鉴定出了线粒体假基因的四个扩展区域。RNA-seq 分析显示，整个基因组都有转录，并且在感染人畜共患病病原体伯氏疏螺旋体的动物的血液中，线粒体基因的表达谱与对照不同，但在肝脏或大脑中没有。对线粒体 D 环的 PCR 和测序在康涅狄格州一个野外地点的 118 只野生白足鼠中鉴定出了 32 种不同的单倍型。这些发现有助于进一步确立白足鼠作为研究新发传染病、生态学和其他学科的模型生物。
