% pubman genre = article @article{item_3379854, title = {{Palaeogenomic analysis of black rat (Rattus rattus) reveals multiple European introductions associated with human economic history}}, author = {Yu, He and Jamieson, Alexandra and Hulme-Beaman, Ardern and Conroy, Chris J. and Knight, Becky and Speller, Camilla and Al-Jarah, Hiba and Eager, Heidi and Trinks, Alexandra and Adikari, Gamini and Baron, Henriette and B{\"o}hlendorf-Arslan, Beate and Bohingamuwa, Wijerathne and Crowther, Alison and Cucchi, Thomas and Esser, Kinie and Fleisher, Jeffrey and Gidney, Louisa and Gladilina, Elena and Gol{\textquoteright}din, Pavel and Goodman, Steven M. and Hamilton-Dyer, Sheila and Helm, Richard and Hillman, Jesse C. and Kallala, Nabil and Kivikero, Hanna and Kov{\'a}cs, Zs{\'o}fia E. and Kunst, G{\"u}nther Karl and Kysel{\'y}, Ren{\'e} and Linderholm, Anna and Maraoui-Telmini, Bouthe{\'{}}ina and Markovi{\'c}, Nemanja and Morales-Mu{\~n}iz, Arturo and Nabais, Mariana and O{\textquoteright}Connor, Terry and Oueslati, Tarek and Quintana Morales, Er{\'e}ndira M. and Pasda, Kerstin and Perera, Jude and Perera, Nimal and Radbauer, Silvia and Ramon, Joan and Rannam{\"a}e, Eve and Sanmart{\'\i} Grego, Joan and Treasure, Edward and Valenzuela-Lamas, Silvia and van der Jagt, Inge and Van Neer, Wim and Vigne, Jean-Denis and Walker, Thomas and Wynne-Jones, Stephanie and Zeiler, J{\o}rn and Dobney, Keith and Boivin, Nicole and Searle, Jeremy B. and Krause-Kyora, Ben and Krause, Johannes and Larson, Greger and Orton, David}, language = {eng}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-022-30009-z}, year = {2022}, abstract = {{The distribution of the black rat (Rattus rattus) has been heavily influenced by its association with humans. The dispersal history of this non-native commensal rodent across Europe, however, remains poorly understood, and different introductions may have occurred during the Roman and medieval periods. Here, in order to reconstruct the population history of European black rats, we first generate a de novo genome assembly of the black rat. We then sequence 67 ancient and three modern black rat mitogenomes, and 36 ancient and three modern nuclear genomes from archaeological sites spanning the 1st-17th centuries CE in Europe and North Africa. Analyses of our newly reported sequences, together with published mitochondrial DNA sequences, confirm that black rats were introduced into the Mediterra- nean and Europe from Southwest Asia. Genomic analyses of the ancient rats reveal a population turnover in temperate Europe between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, coincident with an archaeologically attested decline in the black rat population. The near disappearance and re-emergence of black rats in Europe may have been the result of the breakdown of the Roman Empire, the First Plague Pandemic, and/or post-Roman climatic cooling.}}, journal = {{Nature Communications}}, volume = {13}, eid = {2399}, }