Science Alert: migrant mice show where we came from

Scientists are examining mice DNA here and abroad, using genetics to determine human patterns of migration over centuries of colonisation and international travel.

And it appears that New Zealand’s cultural mix has created a “genetic melting pot” of several subspecies of mice.

While the nineteenth century saw a large influx of mice to New Zealand from Britain, the genes of subspecies of our common house mice also reveal origins from eastern Europe and southern Asia.

These findings appear in two papers just published in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The paper Of mice and (Viking?) men: phylogeography of British and Irish house mice can be downloaded here.

The New Zealand specific research The diverse origins of New Zealand house mice, is available here.

Local expert comment on the research at the Science Media Centre.