Expression profiles of RT6 and other T lymphocyte surface markers in the black rat (Rattus rattus)

Abstract The black rat ( Rattus rattus ) was the predominating rat species in Middle Europe for many centuries. Rats were neither known to the ancient Greeks nor the Romans; at least, there is no respective mention in the classical Greek and Roman literature. The first documented report on (black) rats was from Albertus Magnus (1200–1280). Curiously enough, the bishop of Audun excommunicated them at the beginning of the 15th century. The roots of the black rat, as those of the Norway rat ( Rattus norvegicus ), from which all laboratory rat strains presently in use are descendents, are in the Indian-Malayan region, from where the black rat probably invaded Europe via the medieval trade routes. Proceeding from Scandinavia and Eastern Europe a mass immigration of the Norway rat to Middle Europe took place at the beginning of the 18th century, from where this species spread all over the world. The immigrating Norway rats gradually expelled the black rat, of which presently only a few circumscript colonies exist in Middle Europe. Because Rattus rattus (Rr) and Rattus norvegicus (Rn) neither mate in the wilderness nor under laboratory conditions and even artificial insemination between both these species has been unsuccessful, 1 no intermediate hybrids exist. So far, four main geographical types of Rr are known, that, because of Robertsonian fusion or fission, differ concerning their chromosome numbers ( 2n ): the more domestic Asian (2 n = 42), Ceylonesian (2 n = 40) and Mauritius (2 n = 42) type, as well as the world wide spread Oceanian type (2 n = 38). 1 We report for the first time on the expression profiles of a number of markers expressed by T cells of Rr by means of antibodies that recognize well characterized structures on T cells of Rn and, in particular, present first data on the structural organization of the Rr RT6 gene.