Rodents constitute a significant proportion of mammalian diversity, with their adaptability and wide distribution making them indispensable study organisms across various biological disciplines. While the laboratory mouse remains a predominant model rodent, the bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) offers a unique perspective as a wild rodent within the large subfamily Arvicolinae. Recognized for its relevance to studynatural ecology, the bank vole provides insights into complex ecological interactions, evolutionary adaptations, and disease dynamics. Despite recent recognition of its importance in specific research areas, there is a lack of a comprehensive and up-to-date exploration of its role as a model organism. This review addresses this gap by offering a holistic examination of the bank vole's applications in ecology, evolution, biogeography, disease dynamics, and host-pathogen interactions. We emphasize novel insights into genetic variation, adaptation to climate change, population dynamics, experimental evolution, host-parasite co-evolution, and disease dynamics studies. By consolidating diverse research findings, this review provides a unique and comprehensive perspective on the bank vole's contributions to understanding ecology and evolution, underscoring its importance as a model organism in shaping future biological research.

• Klíčová slova
• Myodes glareolus, Bank vole, Ecology, Genetics, Model organism, Parasitology, Rodents,
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH

Over the years, researchers have used presumptively neutral molecular variation to infer the origins of current species' distributions in northern latitudes (especially Europe). However, several reported examples of genic and chromosomal replacements suggest that end-glacial colonizations of particular northern areas may have involved genetic input from different source populations at different times, coupled with competition and selection. We investigate the functional consequences of differences between two bank vole (Clethrionomys glareolus) haemoglobins deriving from different glacial refugia, one of which partially replaced the other in Britain during end-glacial climate warming. This allows us to examine their adaptive divergence and hence a possible role of selection in the replacement. We determine the amino acid substitution Ser52Cys in the major expressed β-globin gene as the allelic difference. We use structural modelling to reveal that the protein environment renders the 52Cys thiol a highly reactive functional group and we show its reactivity in vitro. We demonstrate that possessing the reactive thiol in haemoglobin increases the resistance of bank vole erythrocytes to oxidative stress. Our study thus provides striking evidence for physiological differences between products of genic variants that spread at the expense of one another during colonization of an area from different glacial refugia.

• Klíčová slova
• adaptation, antioxidative capacity, climate change, cysteine, oxidative stress, redox,
• MeSH
• Arvicolinae klasifikace   genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• fylogeografie MeSH
• genetická variace MeSH
• hemoglobiny chemie   genetika   metabolismus   MeSH
• molekulární sekvence - údaje MeSH
• substituce aminokyselin MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Geografické názvy
• Spojené království MeSH
• Názvy látek
• hemoglobiny MeSH