SupplementaryInformation分析.docVIP

Supplementary Information Rat History. The rat remains a major pest contributing to famine (rodents eat about one-fifth of the world’s food supply annually) yet its contribution to human health cannot be overestimated, from new drugs (most are tested in rats), to understanding essential nutrients, to increasing knowledge of the pathobiology of human disease. Humans invest billions of dollars each year to exterminate rats, yet raising rats for research is a $1 billion per year industry. In many parts of the world the rat remains a source of meat. We loathe seeing them, but are fascinated by their feats: they survived nuclear testing in Engebi atoll, their bite exerts 24,000 lbs per square inch, a single pair could produce 15,000 descendents in a year, and an adult can squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter. The laboratory rat (Rattus norvegicus) originates from central Asia and its success at conquering the world can be directly attributed to its relationship with humans1. The rat eats what we do and travels well with us. Opening trade routes spread the various species of rat and its scourge around the world. Yet today’s plethora of rat clubs, breeders, newsletters, and commercial goods with logos of rats, indicates many people are fans of rats. The history of the rat is obscured by confusing nomenclature. For many years there was not a distinction between mice and rats. In Latin, the word for ‘rat’ is mus; modern Chinese similarly does not differentiate between the two. Samuel Johnson’s 18th century dictionary2 defines rat as “an animal of the mouse kind that infests houses and ships”. Clearly, rats and mice were considered virtually synonymous. Even the history of the laboratory rat is confusing. “Norways have norvegicus as their species name because, in his Outline of the Natural History of Great Britain of 1769, J. Berkenhout used it in the first formal, Linnaean description of the species. The full, formal name of the species is therefore: R