Statements in which the resource exists as a subject.
PredicateObject
rdf:type
lifeskim:mentions
pubmed:issue
11
pubmed:dateCreated
2008-11-5
pubmed:abstractText
It is now widely accepted that novel infectious disease can be a leading cause of serious population decline and even outright extinction in some invertebrate and vertebrate groups (e.g., amphibians). In the case of mammals, however, there are still no well-corroborated instances of such diseases having caused or significantly contributed to the complete collapse of species. A case in point is the extinction of the endemic Christmas Island rat (Rattus macleari): although it has been argued that its disappearance ca. AD 1900 may have been partly or wholly caused by a pathogenic trypanosome carried by fleas hosted on recently-introduced black rats (Rattus rattus), no decisive evidence for this scenario has ever been adduced. Using ancient DNA methods on samples from museum specimens of these rodents collected during the extinction window (AD 1888-1908), we were able to resolve unambiguously sequence evidence of murid trypanosomes in both endemic and invasive rats. Importantly, endemic rats collected prior to the introduction of black rats were devoid of trypanosome signal. Hybridization between endemic and black rats was also previously hypothesized, but we found no evidence of this in examined specimens, and conclude that hybridization cannot account for the disappearance of the endemic species. This is the first molecular evidence for a pathogen emerging in a naïve mammal species immediately prior to its final collapse.
pubmed:commentsCorrections
http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-10970224, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-14766912, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-15661851, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-16481617, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-16507525, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-16928733, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-17390541, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-17644723, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-18296697, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-18313945, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-18616808, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-2338834, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-2762322, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-4570981, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-6429346, http://linkedlifedata.com/resource/pubmed/commentcorrection/18985148-8277861
pubmed:language
eng
pubmed:journal
pubmed:citationSubset
IM
pubmed:chemical
pubmed:status
MEDLINE
pubmed:issn
1932-6203
pubmed:author
pubmed:issnType
Electronic
pubmed:volume
3
pubmed:owner
NLM
pubmed:authorsComplete
Y
pubmed:pagination
e3602
pubmed:dateRevised
2009-11-18
pubmed:meshHeading
pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Animals, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Chimera, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Crosses, Genetic, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-DNA, Protozoan, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Disease Transmission, Infectious, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Extinction, Biological, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Genetic Predisposition to Disease, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-History, 18th Century, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-History, 19th Century, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Indian Ocean, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Mammals, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Micronesia, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Models, Biological, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Phylogeny, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Population Dynamics, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Rats, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Trypanosoma, pubmed-meshheading:18985148-Trypanosomiasis
pubmed:year
2008
pubmed:articleTitle
Historical mammal extinction on Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) correlates with introduced infectious disease.
pubmed:affiliation
Biological Sciences Department, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, USA.
pubmed:publicationType
Journal Article, Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S., Historical Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't