Research Article |
Corresponding author: Mónica Cruz ( monica.guimaraescruz@naturalis.nl ) Academic editor: Nedko Nedyalkov
© 2024 Mónica Cruz, Wim Bergmans, Toyoyuki Takada, Toshihiko Shiroishi, Atsushi Yoshiki.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Cruz M, Bergmans W, Takada T, Shiroishi T, Yoshiki A (2024) Type specimens, taxonomic history, and genetic analysis of the Japanese dancing mouse or waltzer, Mus wagneri variety rotans Droogleever Fortuyn, 1912 (Mammalia, Muridae). ZooKeys 1200: 27-39. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1200.118823
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In the present paper, the existence and location of the type series of the Japanese dancing mouse or waltzer, Mus wagneri variety rotans Droogleever Fortuyn, 1912, are established, and a lectotype is designated. Available type specimens are measured, and some morphological parameters, sex, and general condition of the specimens are recorded. A literature survey was conducted, and an attempt is made to clarify the position of M. wagneri variety rotans in the taxonomy of Mus. A genetic analysis suggests that the type series of the Japanese dancing mouse represent a crossbred, or derivation of a crossbred, between the original Japanese dancing mouse of Mus musculus molossinus Temminck 1844 origin and European fancy or laboratory mice of Mus musculus domesticus Schwarz & Schwarz, 1943 origin. Much of their genome was replaced and occupied by Mus musculus domesticus type genome, probably through extensive breeding with European mice.
Crossbred, genetic analysis, genome, Japanese dancing mouse, lectotype, taxonomic position
In 1912 Æ.B. Droogleever Fortuyn, a Dutch scientist who worked mainly on the anatomy and the heredity of traits in the common house mouse, Mus musculus Linnaeus, 1758, and related taxa, described Mus wagneri variety rotans, the Japanese dancing mouse, a form owing its name to its peculiar rotatory movements. In the fancy mice literature, it is often referred to as waltzing mice, or waltzers. He based his description on 11 specimens, 10 of which were imported from Vienna, Austria, by Dr. C. Kerbert, the director of the Royal Zoological Society Natura Artis Magistra in Amsterdam. The remaining specimen was bred in a laboratory in Utrecht by prof. Dr Zwaardemaker and made available to Droogleever Fortuyn by Dr C.U.A. Kappers (
During routine curating activities by the second author in the Mammal Department of the former Zoological Museum of the University of Amsterdam (
When Droogleever Fortuyn described the Japanese dancing mouse in 1912, Mus wagneri Eversmann, 1848 was considered a full species. Its low tail ring number constituted one of the characters used to distinguish it from the otherwise closely related M. musculus. Due to this, and to the fact that M. wagneri was the only Asian wild mouse species known to Droogleever Fortuyn (
The Japanese have long nurtured the tradition of keeping and breeding mice as pets. The varieties of mice kept and bred by Japanese collectors (or “fanciers”) have been known through the centuries as “fancy mice” and include agouti, albino, and piebald fur colours, pink-eyed dilution, and dwarf-built (
The aims of the present study are to trace the history of the Japanese dancing mouse, Mus wagneri variety rotans Droogleever Fortuyn, 1912, in taxonomy, to establish the existence and location of the types and to designate a lectotype, to give descriptive notes, and to present a genetic analysis of the type material to define their genetic status in comparison with JF1 mice.
Lectotype, 1 male,
Paralectotypes, 5 males, 3 females, 1 cf. female,
All specimens were measured, and some morphological parameters, sex, and general condition were recorded. In addition, a lectotype was designated. A literature survey was conducted, and an attempt was made to clarify the taxonomic position of Mus wagneri variety rotans in Mus. Three specimens, registered as
Genomic DNA extracted by a standard method from JF1 and MSM as controls of Mus musculus molossinus-origin subspecies, and that of C57BL/6J mice as controls of M. musculus domesticus-origin subspecies, were used to compare the genotype with the
BT broken tail
CB condylobasal length: distance between anterior face of incisor or anterior tip of nasal bones (depending on which is more anterior) and posterior face of occipital condyle
E ear length
HB head and body length: distance between tip of snout and anus
HF hind foot length: distance between tip of longest digit excluding claw and posterior tip of heel
ID individual identification on original label
JF1 Japanese fancy mouse 1
MR molar row length: distance between anterior rim of M1 alveolus and posterior rim of M3 alveolus
MSM an inbred strain established from Japanese wild mice, M. m. molossinus, collected in 1978 in Mishima, Shizuoka-ken
NIG National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan
S sex
SC skull crushed: skull severely damaged; no skull measurements can be taken
SD skull damaged: not all measurements can be taken
Sd standard deviation
SI skull intact
SO skin opening on head
T tail length: distance between anus and tip of tail, excluding terminal hair tip
TL total length: distance between tip of snout and tip of tail, excluding terminal hair tip
ZB zygomatic breadth: distance across most distal points of zygomata
ZMAcd code number in former
Japanese fancy mice are mentioned in the literature before 1800. In the Edo era (1603–1868) fancy mice were very popular in Japan and were bred as a hobby (
In 1912 the Japanese dancing mouse was described, as Mus wagneri var. rotans, by Æmilius Bernardus Droogleever Fortuyn (1886–1970), a Dutch scientist who worked mainly on the anatomy and the heredity of traits in the common house mouse and related species (e.g.
The Japanese dancing (or waltzing) mouse was later allocated to Mus molossinus Temminck, 1844, a name used by Tokuda (
Mus musculus manchu was recognized by
Based on
The body measurements, morphological parameters, sex, and condition of all 10 type specimens and the cranial measurements of the lectotype are summarized in Table
Selected measurements (in mm), morphological parameters, sex, and condition of lectotype (μ;
Id | ZMAcd | S | HB | T | T/HB (%) | HF | E | CB | ZB | MR | Condition |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
α | 27234 | m | 58.20 | 46.50 | 79.90 | 11.60 | 8.60 | SC | |||
β | 27235 | m | 58.30 | 47.20 | 80.96 | 12.55 | 8.70 | SC | |||
γ | 27236 | m | 53.70 | 12.00 | 7.70 | BT, SI, SO | |||||
δ | 27237 | f | 53.90 | 47.30 | 87.76 | 12.65 | 8.40 | 17.20 | 8.00 | 1.20 | SD, SO |
ε | 27238 | m | 59.70 | 54.65 | 91.54 | 12.50 | 9.60 | SC | |||
ζ | 27239 | m | 56.90 | 51.35 | 90.25 | 12.05 | 8.90 | SI, SO | |||
η | 27240 | f | 53.05 | 48.00 | 90.48 | 10.80 | 9.20 | SI, SO | |||
λ | 27241 | f | 52.00 | 47.75 | 91.83 | 11.00 | 8.80 | SC | |||
μ | 27233 | m | 56.10 | 56.10 | 100.00 | 12.70 | 8.90 | 17.50 | 8.00 | 1.40 | SI |
υ | 27242 | f (cf.) | 63.80 | 50.50 | 79.15 | 12.45 | 9.50 | SI | |||
mean | 56.57 | 49.93 | 87.98 | 12.03 | 8.83 | 17.35 | 8.00 | 1.30 | |||
SD | 3.60 | 3.49 | 6.85 | 0.69 | 0.55 | 0.21 | 0.00 | 0.14 |
The HB variation of the specimens studied in the present work is compared with that of other Mus taxa in Table
Comparison of the HB variation (mean ± SD in mm) of the subjects of the present study (rotans) with the “optimum HB” of other taxa of Mus as given by
M. rotans | M. molossinus | M. bactrianus | M. wagneri | M. manchu | M. musculus | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
female | 50–61 | 65–70 | 75–80 | 80–85 | 85–90 | 85–90 |
male | 55–59 | 65–70 | 65–70 | 75–80 | 75–80 | 85–90 |
Specimen
Results of genotyping of Japanese Waltzing mice. 1. B and J indicate C57BL/6J and JF1-type alleles, respectively. 2. J-type allele ratio (%) was calculated as follows: No. of loci in B/J + 2 × No. loci in J/J) / 2 × Total no. of loci successfully genotyped × 100. 3. SSLP: 95 simple sequence length polymorphism (SSLP) markers which can distinguish C57BL/6J and JF1 were used. 4. SNP: MassArray SNP analysis was conducted for 977 SNP marker loci which was known as polymorphic between C57BL/6J and JF1.
Genotyping method | Sample name | Numberof loci in each genotype1 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
B/B | B/J | J/J | Total | Not detected | J-type allete ratio2(%) | ||
SSLP3 |
|
50 | 1 | 0 | 51 | 44 | 0.98 |
SNP4 |
|
840 | 64 | 40 | 944 | 33 | 7.6 |
SNP4 |
|
77 | 35 | 11 | 123 | 854 | 23.2 |
SNP4 |
|
74 | 17 | 40 | 131 | 846 | 37.0 |
When comparing HB variation (mean ± SD) in Mus wagneri rotans with the “optimum HB” of related taxa given by Schwarz and Schwarz in 1943, the most obvious observation is that rotans is considerably smaller than all the others (Table
Moriwaki found pairs of original fancy mice at a market in Denmark in 1987 and introduced them into the animal facility of the National Institute of Genetics (NIG) in Mishima, Japan (1998). By the 20th generation resulting from sister-brother matings, a new inbred strain of Japanese fancy mouse called JF1 was established in 1993 (
Morphological and genetic analysis carried out by
The data of SNP-based genotyping suggest that the Japanese dancing mice from the
The house mouse has long been used in the laboratory and constitutes the “universal mammalian model” (
The knowledge of the whereabouts of the type specimens of the Japanese dancing mouse is of great importance not only in a historical perspective but also for the development of further studies to clarify the genetic background of laboratory mice.
The results of the present study indicate that the Japanese dancing mouse was derived from the Japanese house mouse before 1800 as a mutation with a characteristic black-and-white coat coloration and spinning behaviour. This mutation was maintained by inbreeding, first by mouse fanciers in Japan and in Europe and later in laboratories all over the world. The Japanese house mouse has been classified as M. musculus molossinus and as M. musculus manchu, but, in the latest classification (
The remarkable similarity between the coat colour of the type specimens of M. wagneri rotans and the specimens that constitute the JF1 strain, a laboratory mouse strain bred in the NIG, Japan, and thought to be derived from the Japanese house mouse based on genetic analysis, cannot be ignored. The variation of HB of the subjects also shows more similarity with the specimens described as molossinus by
We express our sincere appreciation to Dr Kazuo Moriwaki for establishing Japanese wild mice-derived inbred strains and Japanese fancy mice-derived JF1/Ms strain. We thank Dr Hatsumi Nakata, Ayumi Murakami, Hiroyuki Yasuda, and Tomomi Hashimoto for their excellent technical assistance. We gratefully acknowledge Dr Guy G. Musser in Charleston, USA, for his interest in this paper and for providing us with a copy of the rare 1998 publication by Dr Joe Marshall. We much appreciate Ms Reina de Raat of the University Museum of the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands, who researched Dr Hendrik Zwaardemaker, the physiologist who provided Dr Droogleever Fortuyn with one specimen of the type series of Mus wagneri rotans. We are indebted to Mr Martin Braak of the Nederlandse Knaagdierenfokkers Vereniging (Dutch Society for Rodent Breeding), who informed us about the present situation of the Japanese dancing mouse in the Netherlands, where it is no longer kept, and of dancing in some other rodent species as well.
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
No ethical statement was reported.
No funding was reported.
Writing - original draft: MC, AY, TT, TS, WB. Writing - review and editing: MC.
Toyoyuki Takada https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6796-2085
Toshihiko Shiroishi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0535-2016
Atsushi Yoshiki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9450-5151
All of the data that support the findings of this study are available in the main text