6533b871fe1ef96bd12d195f

RESEARCH PRODUCT

The origin of Swedish and Norwegian populations of the Eurasian harvest mouse (Micromys minutus).

Kjell IsaksenJeroen Van Der KooijOlof HellgrenLars RåbergJon LomanRoar Solheim

subject

Mitochondrial DNAgeographygeography.geographical_feature_categoryCytochrome bEcologyHaplotypeZoologyNorwegianBiologybiology.organism_classificationlanguage.human_languagePhylogeographyAnimal ecologyPeninsulalanguageAnimal Science and ZoologyMicromys minutusEcology Evolution Behavior and Systematics

description

The harvest mouse (Micromys minutus) occurs throughout most of continental Europe. There are also two isolated and recently discovered populations on the Scandinavian peninsula, in Sweden and Norway. Here, we investigate the origin of these populations through analyses of mitochondrial DNA. We found that the two populations on the Scandinavian peninsula have different mtDNA haplotypes. A comparison of our haplotypes to published sequences from most of Europe showed that all Swedish and Norwegian haplotypes are most closely related to the haplotypes in harvest mice from Denmark. Hence, the two populations seem to represent independent colonisations but originate from the same geographical area. We discuss the age of the Swedish and Norwegian populations and suggest that both have been introduced recently.

yearjournalcountryeditionlanguage
2012-09-29
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2503499