Population genetic diversity of genus Rattus species in Tehran city

Today, the rats are considering as an important laboratory model and from another aspect, as very important potentially dangerous pest. Rats reseach, especially to identify them, their genetics of populations and phylogeography, using morphological and especially molecular techniques is a necessity. This study performed using D-Loop region of mtDNA to identify them and study genetic of Tehran metropolis rats and the results showed presence of only the black and brown rat species in Tehran. Among the 229 samples, only one sample was the black rat and remians diagnosed as the brown rats belonging to two different subspecies probably. Demographic and population genetics analyses showed that these animals have a very low genetic diversity and the two different groups have entered Iran in different times: The estimated time for the first or newer group and for older group was about 700 and 5600 years, respectively. The data also revealed that Tehran's rat populations have had an expansion period in past but one could see the well-done controls in the past, too. The districts such as 18, 19, 13, 12, 9, 4 and 1 have much more groups of rats and could be the niche of colonies.