SGER: Maintenance of an Outbred High-Altitude Adapted Colony of Deer Mice

University Of California-Riverside, Riverside CA

Investigators

Abstract

DBI-9987605 Hammond, Kimberly A. This project is to support a colony of deer mice (Peromyscus maniculatus) that are derived from a high altitude population in the White Mountains of California. This species is unique because it carries a hemoglobin polymorphism that may confer an advantage for living at high altitudes under reduced oxygen and cold conditions. Thus, the species is an ideal model for the initiation of a large-scale study of adaptation to high altitude or other hypoxic conditions in warm-blooded animals. This colony is also Hanta virus (Sin Nombre strain) free so it is a valuable resource for Hanta virus research and represents no health or safety risks. Finally, the colony is outbred and has been maintained to preserve maximum heterozygosity. The colony will represent an excellent, Hanta virus free stock that will be of use to other researchers for the study of Hanta virus and its associated physiology in small mammals. In addition, the colony will be an excellent resource for the study of the ecology an evolutionary biology of altitudinal acclimation and adaptation in small mammals. The funds will support building of a breeding colony that will be deposited in the Peromyscus Stock Center at the University of South Carolina when they can be maintained and made widely available to other researchers.