Event

Abstract: A unique assemblage of native and nonnative rodents inhabit cities but differ in their occupancy of "green" and "gray" infrastructure. They also vary in their ability to disperse through heterogeneous urban landscapes, which can have profound implications for genetic drift, migration, and selection in urban populations. For the past several years my lab has been using population genomic approaches to investigate the evolutionary biology of urban rodents, with a particular focus on the globally invasive brown rat (Rattus norvegicus). This talk reviews our work investigating the evolution of this species from a global perspective, as well as the evolutionary dynamics of populations within individual cities. We investigate the historical spread of brown rats using population genomics and modeling of their demographic history. We also examine spatial patterns of genetic diversity and gene flow within individual cities using landscape genetic modeling to understand how rats occupy and use urban landscapes. The talk will also address potential adaptive evolution in urban rat populations (particularly New York City), and the relationships between wild rats and their domesticated form, the ubiquitous lab rat. Philadelphia, and UPenn in particular, played an important role in development of lab rat strains.

Munshi-South website