African and Asian leopards are highly differentiated at the genomic level
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African and Asian leopards are highly differentiated at the genomic level. / Paijmans, Johanna L. A.; Barlow, Axel; Becker, Matthew S.; Cahill, James A.; Fickel, Joerns; Foerster, Daniel W. G.; Gries, Katrin; Hartmann, Stefanie; Havmoller, Rasmus Worsoe; Henneberger, Kirstin; Kern, Christian; Kitchener, Andrew C.; Lorenzen, Eline D.; Mayer, Frieder; OBrien, Stephen J.; von Seth, Johanna; Sinding, Mikkel-Holder S.; Spong, Goran; Uphyrkina, Olga; Wachter, Bettina; Westbury, Michael; Dalen, Love; Bhak, Jong; Manica, Andrea; Hofreiter, Michael.
In: Current Biology, Vol. 31, No. 9, 2021, p. 1872-1882.e5.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - African and Asian leopards are highly differentiated at the genomic level
AU - Paijmans, Johanna L. A.
AU - Barlow, Axel
AU - Becker, Matthew S.
AU - Cahill, James A.
AU - Fickel, Joerns
AU - Foerster, Daniel W. G.
AU - Gries, Katrin
AU - Hartmann, Stefanie
AU - Havmoller, Rasmus Worsoe
AU - Henneberger, Kirstin
AU - Kern, Christian
AU - Kitchener, Andrew C.
AU - Lorenzen, Eline D.
AU - Mayer, Frieder
AU - OBrien, Stephen J.
AU - von Seth, Johanna
AU - Sinding, Mikkel-Holder S.
AU - Spong, Goran
AU - Uphyrkina, Olga
AU - Wachter, Bettina
AU - Westbury, Michael
AU - Dalen, Love
AU - Bhak, Jong
AU - Manica, Andrea
AU - Hofreiter, Michael
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Leopards are the only big cats still widely distributed across the continents of Africa and Asia. They occur in a wide range of habitats and are often found in close proximity to humans. But despite their ubiquity, leopard phylogeography and population history have not yet been studied with genomic tools. Here, we present population-genomic data from 26 modern and historical samples encompassing the vast geographical distribution of this species. We find that Asian leopards are broadly monophyletic with respect to African leopards across almost their entire nuclear genomes. This profound genetic pattern persists despite the animals' high potential mobility, and despite evidence of transfer of African alleles into Middle Eastern and Central Asian leopard populations within the last 100,000 years. Our results further suggest that Asian leopards originated from a single out-of-Africa dispersal event 500-600 thousand years ago and are characterized by higher population structuring, stronger isolation by distance, and lower heterozygosity than African leopards. Taxonomic categories do not take into account the variability in depth of divergence among subspecies. The deep divergence between the African subspecies and Asian populations contrasts with the much shallower divergence among putative Asian subspecies. Reconciling genomic variation and taxonomy is likely to be a growing challenge in the genomics era.
AB - Leopards are the only big cats still widely distributed across the continents of Africa and Asia. They occur in a wide range of habitats and are often found in close proximity to humans. But despite their ubiquity, leopard phylogeography and population history have not yet been studied with genomic tools. Here, we present population-genomic data from 26 modern and historical samples encompassing the vast geographical distribution of this species. We find that Asian leopards are broadly monophyletic with respect to African leopards across almost their entire nuclear genomes. This profound genetic pattern persists despite the animals' high potential mobility, and despite evidence of transfer of African alleles into Middle Eastern and Central Asian leopard populations within the last 100,000 years. Our results further suggest that Asian leopards originated from a single out-of-Africa dispersal event 500-600 thousand years ago and are characterized by higher population structuring, stronger isolation by distance, and lower heterozygosity than African leopards. Taxonomic categories do not take into account the variability in depth of divergence among subspecies. The deep divergence between the African subspecies and Asian populations contrasts with the much shallower divergence among putative Asian subspecies. Reconciling genomic variation and taxonomy is likely to be a growing challenge in the genomics era.
KW - COMPLETE MITOCHONDRIAL GENOME
KW - PANTHERA-PARDUS
KW - GENETIC DIVERSITY
KW - LATE PLEISTOCENE
KW - JEBEL IRHOUD
KW - POPULATION
KW - DNA
KW - ANCIENT
KW - SEQUENCE
KW - HISTORY
U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.084
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2021.03.084
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 33848458
VL - 31
SP - 1872-1882.e5
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
SN - 0960-9822
IS - 9
ER -
ID: 272407218