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The Norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet
The laboratory rat was the first mammal domesticated for research purposes. It is descended from wild Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, which despite their name likely originated in Asia. Exceptionally adaptable, these rodents now inhabit almost all environments on Earth, especially near human settlem...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6968928/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31948542 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.50651 |
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author | Modlinska, Klaudia Pisula, Wojciech |
author_facet | Modlinska, Klaudia Pisula, Wojciech |
author_sort | Modlinska, Klaudia |
collection | PubMed |
description | The laboratory rat was the first mammal domesticated for research purposes. It is descended from wild Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, which despite their name likely originated in Asia. Exceptionally adaptable, these rodents now inhabit almost all environments on Earth, especially near human settlements where they are often seen as pests. The laboratory rat thrives in captivity, and its domestication has produced many inbred and outbred lines that are used for different purposes, including medical trials and behavioral studies. Differences between wild Norway rats and their laboratory counterparts were first noted in the early 20(th) century and led some researchers to later question its value as a model organism. While these views are probably unjustified, the advanced domestication of the laboratory rat does suggest that resuming studies of wild rats could benefit the wider research community. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6968928 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-69689282020-01-22 The Norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet Modlinska, Klaudia Pisula, Wojciech eLife Ecology The laboratory rat was the first mammal domesticated for research purposes. It is descended from wild Norway rats, Rattus norvegicus, which despite their name likely originated in Asia. Exceptionally adaptable, these rodents now inhabit almost all environments on Earth, especially near human settlements where they are often seen as pests. The laboratory rat thrives in captivity, and its domestication has produced many inbred and outbred lines that are used for different purposes, including medical trials and behavioral studies. Differences between wild Norway rats and their laboratory counterparts were first noted in the early 20(th) century and led some researchers to later question its value as a model organism. While these views are probably unjustified, the advanced domestication of the laboratory rat does suggest that resuming studies of wild rats could benefit the wider research community. eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd 2020-01-17 /pmc/articles/PMC6968928/ /pubmed/31948542 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.50651 Text en © 2020, Modlinska and Pisula http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Ecology Modlinska, Klaudia Pisula, Wojciech The Norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet |
title | The Norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet |
title_full | The Norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet |
title_fullStr | The Norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet |
title_full_unstemmed | The Norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet |
title_short | The Norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet |
title_sort | norway rat, from an obnoxious pest to a laboratory pet |
topic | Ecology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6968928/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31948542 http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.50651 |
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