Researchers have discovered how New York affects the genetic mutation of rats

Фото: Depositphotos

New York is a city where rats crawl out of the closet, bite children in their cots, crawl on sleeping passengers in the subway, seize Taco Bell and run with pieces of pizza on the stairs in the subway.

Matthew Combi is a graduate student at Fordham University, and, like many young people, came to New York to fulfill his dreams of exploring urban rats. For the past two years, Kombys and his colleagues have captured and sequenced the DNA of brown rats in Manhattan, producing the most complete genetic portrait of the most dominant rodent population in the city.

In general, Manhattan rats are genetically most similar to rats from Western Europe, especially Great Britain and France. Most likely, they arrived here by ship in the middle of the 18 century, when New York was still a British colony. Kombis was surprised to find that Manhattan rats are very homogeneous in origin.

When Kombis looked closer, he saw clear subpopulations of rats. Manhattan has two genetically identifiable groups of rats, separated by a geographical barrier, which is located in the center of the city.

Researchers have found that different areas have their own distinct rats. “If you gave us a rat, we could tell it was from the West Village or the East Village,” Combis says. “These are truly unique areas with special rats.” And the boundaries of rat areas can fit surprisingly well with human ones.

Two types of rats are marked with black and white squares. Photo: Molecular Ecology

Combis and a team of student researchers spent the summer catching rats, starting in Inwood in northern Manhattan and moving south. They received permission from the New York City Parks Department, which gave them access to most green spaces, such as Central Park, as well as small gardens and parks that dot the city.

Catching rats, the researchers cut one section of the tail from each of them before releasing. Then, genetic tests were performed with the obtained biomaterial to detect differences in genetic mutations between rats living in northern Manhattan and below Fifth Avenue.

The team also took tissue samples for other researchers interested in studying how rats spread diseases in the urban environment.

Kombis is currently writing his dissertation on the ecology of rats in New York. He considers how a number of characteristics (natural objects such as parks), social factors (such as poverty), physical infrastructure (like the metro system) take into account the spatial distribution of rats in Manhattan.

“Obviously, rats carry a lot of deadly pathogens,” Combis noted. “They pose a threat to public health.” So we hope that the work we are doing will help understand better management strategies and may lead to more effective rat reductions.”

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