With secondhand gene, house mice resist poison
Thursday, July 21, 2011 - 13:30
in Health & Medicine
Since the 1950s, people have tried to limit the numbers of mice and rats using a poison known as warfarin. But, over the course of evolution, those pesky rodents have found a way to make a comeback, resisting that chemical via changes to a gene involved in vitamin K recycling and blood clotting. Now, researchers show that European mice have in some cases acquired that resistance gene in a rather unorthodox way: they got it secondhand from an Algerian mouse.