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Updated: Feb 19, 2026

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Out of Southern East Asia of the Brown Rat Revealed by Large-Scale Genome Sequencing
Lin Zeng1,2, Chen Ming3,4, Yan Li1,5
1State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Yunnan Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Domestic Animals, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China.
Abstract:
The geographic origin and migration of the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus) remain subjects of considerable debate. In this study, we sequenced whole genomes of 110 wild brown rats with a diverse world-wide representation. We reveal that brown rats migrated out of southern East Asia, rather than northern Asia as formerly suggested, into the Middle East and then to Europe and Africa, thousands of years ago. Comparison of genomes from different geographical populations reveals that many genes involved in the immune system experienced positive selection in the wild brown rat.
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