The Expansion of House Mouse Major Urinary Protein Genes Likely Did Not Facilitate Commensalism with Humans

MACHOLÁN, Miloš, Kristina DANISZOVA and Zuzana HIADLOVSKA. The Expansion of House Mouse Major Urinary Protein Genes Likely Did Not Facilitate Commensalism with Humans. Genes. MDPI, 2023, vol. 14, No 11, p. 1-14. ISSN 2073-4425. Available from: https://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes14112090.

Basic information

• Original name: The Expansion of House Mouse Major Urinary Protein Genes Likely Did Not Facilitate Commensalism with Humans
• Authors: MACHOLÁN, Miloš (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution), Kristina DANISZOVA and Zuzana HIADLOVSKA.
• Edition: Genes, MDPI, 2023, 2073-4425.

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Article in a journal
• Field of Study: 10603 Genetics and heredity
• Country of publisher: Switzerland
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• WWW: URL
• Impact factor: Impact factor: 3.500 in 2022
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14310/23:00132895
• Organization unit: Faculty of Science
• Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/genes14112090
• UT WoS: 001114621000001
• Keywords in English: copy number variation; ddPCR; MUP excretion; Mus musculus; proteomics; synanthropy
• Tags: rivok
• Tags: International impact, Reviewed

Abstract

Mouse wild-derived strains (WDSs) combine the advantages of classical laboratory stocks and wild animals, and thus appear to be promising tools for diverse biomedical and evolutionary studies. We employed 18 WDSs representing three non-synanthropic species (Mus spretus, Mus spicilegus, and M. macedonicus) and three house mouse subspecies (Mus musculus musculus, M. m. domesticus, M. m. castaneus), which are all important human commensals to explore whether the number of major urinary protein (MUP) genes and their final protein levels in urine are correlated with the level of commensalism. Contrary to expectations, the MUP copy number (CN) and protein excretion in the strains derived from M. m. castaneus, which is supposed to be the strongest commensal, were not significantly different from the non-commensal species. Regardless of an overall tendency for higher MUP amounts in taxa with a higher CN, there was no significant correlation at the strain level. Our study thus suggests that expansion of the Mup cluster, which appeared before the house mouse diversification, is unlikely to facilitate commensalism with humans in three house mouse subspecies. Finally, we found considerable variation among con(sub)specific WDSs, warning against generalisations of results based on a few strains.