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Research on mountaineering mice reveals insights into evolutionary adaptation

“Mountaineering Mice: Unraveling the Secrets of Evolutionary Adaptation Across Diverse Environments”

Teams of mountaineering mice are helping advance understanding into how evolutionary adaptation to localized conditions can enable a single species to thrive across diverse environments.

In a study led by Naim Bautista, a postdoctoral researcher in Jay Storz’s lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, highland deer mice and their lowland cousins were taken on a simulated ascent to 6,000 meters. The “climb” started from sea level, and after seven weeks, the mice reached the simulated summit. Throughout the ascent, Bautista tracked how the mice responded to cold stress at progressively lower oxygen levels.

According to Storz, the Willa Cather Professor of biological sciences, deer mice have the broadest environmental range of any North American mammal, spanning from the plains of Nebraska to the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada. The study aimed to determine if their ability to thrive across such a wide range of elevations is due to evolving adaptations to local conditions or a generalized ability to acclimatize.

The study, conducted at McMaster University in Canada, divided the highland and lowland mice into two groups – a control group that remained at sea level and an acclimation group that underwent the seven-week ascent. The acclimated group experienced a weekly increase in elevation by 1,000 meters, with oxygen levels decreasing to simulate high-altitude conditions. The researchers monitored each mouse’s ability to cope with cold exposure through metabolic heat production.

Results showed that the highland and lowland deer mice do not share a general ability to acclimate to low oxygen conditions. As the simulated elevations rose above 4,000 meters, the highland mice demonstrated a clear advantage in regulating body temperature compared to their lowland counterparts, thanks to more efficient breathing and circulatory oxygen transport.

Bautista noted that the highland mice possess a genetic advantage that helps prevent thickening of the right ventricle of the heart, a common issue among lowland mammals forced to acclimatize to low oxygen conditions.

The study underscores how adaptation to local conditions can enable a species like the deer mouse to thrive in diverse environments by shaping their flexibility and survival abilities. Bautista plans to expand the research by studying the responses of the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse, the world’s highest-dwelling mammal, found in the Andes mountains at elevations up to 22,110 feet.

The findings of the deer mice study were recently published in PNAS, with contributions from researchers at McMaster University, the University of Montana, and the University of British Columbia.

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