Nonreceding hare lines: genetic continuity since the Late Pleistocene in European mountain hares (Lepus timidus)
Por:
Smith, Steve, Sandoval-Castellanos, Edson, Lagerholm, Vendela K., Napierala, Hannes, Sablin, Mikhail, Von Seth, Johanna, Fladerer, Florian A., Germonpre, Mietje, Wojtal, Piotr, Miller, Rebecca, Stewart, John R., Dalen, Love
Publicada:
1 abr 2017
Categoría:
Ecology, evolution, behavior and systematics
Resumen:
Throughout time, climate changes have caused substantial rearrangements
of habitats which have alternately promoted and disfavoured different
types of taxa. At first glance, the mountain hare (Lepus timidus) shows
the typical hallmarks of a cold-adapted species that has retreated to
refugia since the onset of the current Holocene interglacial. In
contrary to expectations, however, the species has a high contemporary
genetic diversity with no clear differentiation between geographically
isolated populations. In order to clarify the phylogeographic history of
European mountain hares, we here analysed ancient DNA from the glacial
populations that inhabited the previous midlatitude European tundra
region. Our results reveal that the Ice Age hares had similar levels of
genetic variation and lack of geographic structure as observed today,
and the ancient samples were intermingled with modern individuals
throughout the reconstructed evolutionary tree. This suggests a temporal
genetic continuity in Europe, where the mountain hares were able to keep
pace with the rapid changes at the last glacial/ interglacial transition
and successfully track their shifting habitat to northern and alpine
regions. Further, the temporal demographic analyses showed that the
species' population size in Europe appears to have been tightly linked
with palaeoclimatic fluctuations, with increases and declines occurring
during periods of global cooling and warming, respectively. Taken
together, our results suggest that neither habitat shifts nor
demographic fluctuations have had any substantial impact on the genetic
diversity of European mountain hares. This remarkable resilience, which
contrasts to a majority of previously investigated cold-adapted species,
is likely due to its generalist nature that makes it less vulnerable to
environmental changes.
Filiaciones:
Smith, Steve:
Univ Vet Med Vienna, Konrad Lorenz Inst Ethol, Dept Integrat Biol & Evolut, Savoyenstr 1a, A-1160 Vienna, Austria
Sandoval-Castellanos, Edson:
Swedish Museum Nat Hist, Dept Bioinformat & Genet, S-10405 Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm Univ, Dept Zool, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Univ Nacl Autonoma Mexico, Ctr Ciencias Complejidad, Ciudad De Mexico, Mexico
Lagerholm, Vendela K.:
Swedish Museum Nat Hist, Dept Bioinformat & Genet, S-10405 Stockholm, Sweden
Stockholm Univ, Dept Zool, S-10691 Stockholm, Sweden
Napierala, Hannes:
Zentrum Nat Wissensch Archaol, Archaozool, Rumelinstr 23, D-72070 Tubingen, Germany
Sablin, Mikhail:
Russian Acad Sci, Theriol Lab, Zool Inst, Univ Nab 1, St Petersburg 199034, Russia
Von Seth, Johanna:
Swedish Museum Nat Hist, Dept Bioinformat & Genet, S-10405 Stockholm, Sweden
Fladerer, Florian A.:
Austrian Acad Sci, Inst Oriental & European Archaeol OREA, Quaternary Archaeol, Fleischmarkt 22, A-1010 Vienna, Austria
Germonpre, Mietje:
Royal Belgian Inst Nat Sci, Operat Direct Earth & Hist Life, Vautierstr 29, B-1000 Brussels, Belgium
Wojtal, Piotr:
Polish Acad Sci, Inst Systemat & Evolut Anim, Slawkowska 17, PL-31016 Krakow, Poland
Miller, Rebecca:
Univ Liege, Serv Prehist, Quai Roosevelt 1, B-4000 Liege, Belgium
Stewart, John R.:
Bournemouth Univ, Fac Sci & Technol, Poole BH12 5BB, Dorset, England
Dalen, Love:
Swedish Museum Nat Hist, Dept Bioinformat & Genet, S-10405 Stockholm, Sweden
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