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| 2. |
- Lord, Edana, et al.
(författare)
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Population dynamics and demographic history of Eurasian collared lemmings
- 2022
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Ingår i: BMC Ecology and Evolution. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 2730-7182. ; 22:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Ancient DNA studies suggest that Late Pleistocene climatic changes had a significant effect on population dynamics in Arctic species. The Eurasian collared lemming (Dicrostonyx torquatus) is a keystone species in the Arctic ecosystem. Earlier studies have indicated that past climatic fluctuations were important drivers of past population dynamics in this species.Results: Here, we analysed 59 ancient and 54 modern mitogenomes from across Eurasia, along with one modern nuclear genome. Our results suggest population growth and genetic diversification during the early Late Pleistocene, implying that collared lemmings may have experienced a genetic bottleneck during the warm Eemian interglacial. Furthermore, we find multiple temporally structured mitogenome clades during the Late Pleistocene, consistent with earlier results suggesting a dynamic late glacial population history. Finally, we identify a population in northeastern Siberia that maintained genetic diversity and a constant population size at the end of the Pleistocene, suggesting suitable conditions for collared lemmings in this region during the increasing temperatures associated with the onset of the Holocene.Conclusions: This study highlights an influence of past warming, in particular the Eemian interglacial, on the evolutionary history of the collared lemming, along with spatiotemporal population structuring throughout the Late Pleistocene.
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| 3. |
- Lord, Edana, et al.
(författare)
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Pre-extinction Demographic Stability and Genomic Signatures of Adaptation in the Woolly Rhinoceros
- 2020
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Ingår i: Current Biology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0960-9822 .- 1879-0445. ; 30:19
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ancient DNA has significantly improved our understanding of the evolution and population history of extinct megafauna. However, few studies have used complete ancient genomes to examine species responses to climate change prior to extinction. The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) was a cold-adapted megaherbivore widely distributed across northern Eurasia during the Late Pleistocene and became extinct approximately 14 thousand years before present (ka BP). While humans and climate change have been proposed as potential causes of extinction [1-3], knowledge is limited on how the woolly rhinoceros was impacted by human arrival and climatic fluctuations [2]. Here, we use one complete nuclear genome and 14 mitogenomes to investigate the demographic history of woolly rhinoceros leading up to its extinction. Unlike other northern megafauna, the effective population size of woolly rhinoceros likely increased at 29.7 ka BP and subsequently remained stable until close to the species’ extinction. Analysis of the nuclear genome from a similar to 18.5-ka-old specimen did not indicate any increased inbreeding or reduced genetic diversity, suggesting that the population size remained steady for more than 13 ka following the arrival of humans [4]. The population contraction leading to extinction of the woolly rhinoceros may have thus been sudden and mostly driven by rapid warming in the Bolling-Allerod interstadial. Furthermore, we identify woolly rhinoceros-specific adaptations to arctic climate, similar to those of the woolly mammoth. This study highlights how species respond differently to climatic fluctuations and further illustrates the potential of palaeogenomics to study the evolutionary history of extinct species.
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- Moodley, Yoshan, et al.
(författare)
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Interspecific Gene Flow and the Evolution of Specialization in Black and White Rhinoceros
- 2020
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Ingår i: Molecular biology and evolution. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0737-4038 .- 1537-1719. ; 37:11, s. 3105-3117
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Africa’s black (Diceros bicornis) and white (Ceratotherium simum) rhinoceros are closely related sister-taxa that evolved highly divergent obligate browsing and grazing feeding strategies. Although their precursor species Diceros praecox and Ceratotherium mauritanicum appear in the fossil record ∼5.2 Ma, by 4 Ma both were still mixed feeders, and were even spatiotemporally sympatric at several Pliocene sites in what is today Africa’s Rift Valley. Here, we ask whether or not D. praecox and C. mauritanicum were reproductively isolated when they came into Pliocene secondary contact. We sequenced and de novo assembled the first annotated black rhinoceros reference genome and compared it with available genomes of other black and white rhinoceros. We show that ancestral gene flow between D. praecox and C. mauritanicum ceased sometime between 3.3 and 4.1 Ma, despite conventional methods for the detection of gene flow from whole genome data returning false positive signatures of recent interspecific migration due to incomplete lineage sorting. We propose that ongoing Pliocene genetic exchange, for up to 2 My after initial divergence, could have potentially hindered the development of obligate feeding strategies until both species were fully reproductively isolated, but that the more severe and shifting paleoclimate of the early Pleistocene was likely the ultimate driver of ecological specialization in African rhinoceros.
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| 6. |
- Palkopoulou, Eleftheria, et al.
(författare)
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Synchronous genetic turnovers across Western Eurasia in Late Pleistocene collared lemmings
- 2016
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Ingår i: Global Change Biology. - : Wiley. - 1354-1013 .- 1365-2486. ; 22:5, s. 1710-1721
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Recent palaeogenetic studies indicate a highly dynamic history in collared lemmings (Dicrostonyx spp.), with several demographical changes linked to climatic fluctuations that took place during the last glaciation. At the western range margin of D.torquatus, these changes were characterized by a series of local extinctions and recolonizations. However, it is unclear whether this pattern represents a local phenomenon, possibly driven by ecological edge effects, or a global phenomenon that took place across large geographical scales. To address this, we explored the palaeogenetic history of the collared lemming using a next-generation sequencing approach for pooled mitochondrial DNA amplicons. Sequences were obtained from over 300 fossil remains sampled across Eurasia and two sites in North America. We identified five mitochondrial lineages of D.torquatus that succeeded each other through time across Europe and western Russia, indicating a history of repeated population extinctions and recolonizations, most likely from eastern Russia, during the last 50000years. The observation of repeated extinctions across such a vast geographical range indicates large-scale changes in the steppe-tundra environment in western Eurasia during the last glaciation. AllHolocene samples, from across the species' entire range, belonged to only one of the five mitochondrial lineages. Thus, extant D.torquatus populations only harbour a small fraction of the total genetic diversity that existed across different stages of the Late Pleistocene. In North American samples, haplotypes belonging to both D.groenlandicus and D.richardsoni were recovered from a Late Pleistocene site in south-western Canada. This suggests that D.groenlandicus had a more southern and D.richardsoni a more northern glacial distribution than previously thought. This study provides significant insights into the population dynamics of a small mammal at a large geographical scale and reveals a rather complex demographical history, which could have had bottom-up effects in the Late Pleistocene steppe-tundra ecosystem.
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| 7. |
- Prost, Stefan, et al.
(författare)
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Comparative analyses identify genomic features potentially involved in the evolution of birds-of-paradise
- 2019
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Ingår i: GigaScience. - : OXFORD UNIV PRESS. - 2047-217X. ; 8:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The diverse array of phenotypes and courtship displays exhibited by birds-of-paradise have long fascinated scientists and nonscientists alike. Remarkably, almost nothing is known about the genomics of this iconic radiation. There are 41 species in 16 genera currently recognized within the birds-of-paradise family (Paradisaeidae), most of which are endemic to the island of New Guinea. In this study, we sequenced genomes of representatives from all five major clades within this family to characterize genomic changes that may have played a role in the evolution of the group's extensive phenotypic diversity. We found genes important for coloration, morphology, and feather and eye development to be under positive selection. In birds-of-paradise with complex lekking systems and strong sexual dimorphism, the core birds-of-paradise, we found Gene Ontology categories for "startle response" and "olfactory receptor activity" to be enriched among the gene families expanding significantly faster compared to the other birds in our study. Furthermore, we found novel families of retrovirus-like retrotransposons active in all three de novo genomes since the early diversification of the birds-of-paradise group, which might have played a role in the evolution of this fascinating group of birds.
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| 8. |
- Westbury, Michael V, et al.
(författare)
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Ecological Specialization and Evolutionary Reticulation in Extant Hyaenidae
- 2021
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Ingår i: Molecular biology and evolution. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0737-4038 .- 1537-1719. ; 38:9, s. 3884-3897
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the Miocene, Hyaenidae was a highly diverse family of Carnivora that has since been severely reduced to four species: the bone-cracking spotted, striped, and brown hyenas, and the specialized insectivorous aardwolf. Previous studies investigated the evolutionary histories of the spotted and brown hyenas, but little is known about the remaining two species. Moreover, the genomic underpinnings of scavenging and insectivory, defining traits of the extant species, remain elusive. Here, we generated an aardwolf genome and analyzed it together with the remaining three species to reveal their evolutionary relationships, genomic underpinnings of their scavenging and insectivorous lifestyles, and their respective genetic diversities and demographic histories. High levels of phylogenetic discordance suggest gene flow between the aardwolf lineage and the ancestral brown/striped hyena lineage. Genes related to immunity and digestion in the bone-cracking hyenas and craniofacial development in the aardwolf showed the strongest signals of selection, suggesting putative key adaptations to carrion and termite feeding, respectively. A family-wide expansion in olfactory receptor genes suggests that an acute sense of smell was a key early adaptation. Finally, we report very low levels of genetic diversity within the brown and striped hyenas despite no signs of inbreeding, putatively linked to their similarly slow decline in effective population size over the last ∼2 million years. High levels of genetic diversity and more stable population sizes through time are seen in the spotted hyena and aardwolf. Taken together, our findings highlight how ecological specialization can impact the evolutionary history, demographics, and adaptive genetic changes of an evolutionary lineage.
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