Hare research

Hare research at the department of Environmental and Biological Sciences begun in 2013. Our current research is continuation of the CROSSHARES-consortium, a joint Academy of Finland funded project with the mitochondrial metabolism and bioenergetics-research group in Tampere university. We are interested in investigating the cellular mechanisms that maintain species boundaries, hare population genetics, adaptation mechanisms of brown hares and the distribution histories of hares.

In our work we apply broad range of tools from genomics to cell and  molecular biology. To facilitate our work, as well as for the benefit of everybody working on hare genetics, we have also published the first reference genome for the brown hare (Lepus europaeus). The genome can be accessed and viewed through the NCBI-genome browser.

In the summer of 2024, we began a case study under the Biodiversity Genomics Europe community. In this study, we are applying our hare reference genome assemblies to elucidate the consequences of brown hares hybridizing with mountain hares in Finland and to understand the dispersal history of the brown hare.