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A Half-Century of Studies on a Chromosomal Hybrid Zone of the House Mouse
Mabel D Giménez1, Daniel W Förster1, Eleanor P Jones1
1From the Department of Biology, University of York, York, UK (Giménez, Förster, Jones, Jóhannesdóttir, Gabriel, Panithanarak, Scascitelli, Searle, and Hauffe); Instituto de Biología Subtropical (UNaM-CONICET), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Químicas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Misiones, Misiones, Argentina (Giménez); Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Leibniz-Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Berlin, Germany (Förster); Fera Science, York, UK (Jones); Department of Ecology and Evolution, Corson Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853-2701 (Jóhannesdóttir and Searle); CESAM-Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal (Gabriel); Institute of Marine Science, Burapha University, Chonburi, Thailand (Panithanarak); Dipartimento di Biologia e Biotecnologie "Lazzaro Spallanzani", University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy (Merico and Garagna); and Department of Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology, Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, S. Michele all'Adige (TN), Italy (Hauffe).
Abstract:
The first natural chromosomal variation in the house mouse was described nearly 50 years ago in Val Poschiavo on the Swiss side of the Swiss-Italian border in the Central Eastern Alps. Studies have extended into neighboring Valtellina, and the house mice of the Poschiavo-Valtellina area have been subject to detailed analysis, reviewed here. The maximum extent of this area is 70 km, yet it has 4 metacentric races and the standard 40-chromosome telocentric race distributed in a patchwork fashion. The metacentric races are characterized by highly reduced diploid numbers (2n = 22-26) resulting from Robertsonian fusions, perhaps modified by whole-arm reciprocal translocations. The races hybridize and the whole Poschiavo-Valtellina area can be considered a "hybrid zone." The studies of this area have provided insights into origin of races within hybrid zones, gene flow within hybrid zones and the possibility of speciation in hybrid zones. This provides a case study of how chromosomal rearrangements may impact the genetic structure of populations and their diversification.
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