biostudies-literatureUnknown20(1)Linnenbrink MMax-Planck-GesellschaftBACKGROUND:Amylase gene clusters have been implicated in adaptive copy number changes in response to the amount of starch in the diet of humans and mammals. However, this interpretation has been questioned for humans and for mammals there is a paucity of information from natural populations. RESULTS:Using optical mapping and genome read information, we show here that the amylase cluster in natural house mouse populations is indeed copy-number variable for Amy2b paralogous gene copies (called Amy2a1 - Amy2a5), but a direct connection to starch diet is not evident. However, we find that the amylase cluster was subject to introgression of haplotypes between Mus musculus sub-species. A very recent introgression can be traced in the Western European populations and this leads also to the rescueBMC evolutionary biology56https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC7227347biostudies-literatureThe amylase gene cluster in house mice (Mus musculus) was subject to repeated introgression including the rescue of a pseudogene.PMC7227347Linnenbrink MMcConnell EUllrich KKTautz DfalseThe amylase gene cluster in house mice (Mus musculus) was subject to repeated introgression including the rescue of a pseudogene.BACKGROUND:Amylase gene clusters have been implicated in adaptive copy number changes in response to the amount of starch in the diet of humans and mammals. However, this interpretation has been questioned for humans and for mammals there is a paucity of information from natural populations. RESULTS:Using optical mapping and genome read information, we show here that the amylase cluster in natural house mouse populations is indeed copy-number variable for Amy2b paralogous gene copies (called Amy2a1 - Amy2a5), but a direct connection to starch diet is not evident. However, we find that the amylase cluster was subject to introgression of haplotypes between Mus musculus sub-species. A very recent introgression can be traced in the Western European populations and this leads also to the rescue2020-01-01T00:00:00Z2020 May2025-05-18T12:08:47.821Z2020-05-31T07:02:48ZS-EPMC72273473241432210.1186/s12862-020-01624-5