TY - JOUR
T1 - Population genomic analysis of North American eastern wolves (Canis lycaon) supports their conservation priority status
AU - Heppenheimer, Elizabeth
AU - Harrigan, Ryan J.
AU - Rutledge, Linda Y.
AU - Koepfli, Klaus Peter
AU - Decandia, Alexandra L.
AU - Brzeski, Kristin E.
AU - Benson, John F.
AU - Wheeldon, Tyler
AU - Patterson, Brent R.
AU - Kays, Roland
AU - Hohenlohe, Paul A.
AU - vonHoldt, Bridgett Marie
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: A.L.D. was supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under grant DGE1656466. R.J.H. was supported by NSF grant PD-08-1269. K.-P.K. was partially supported by funding from St. Petersburg State University, Russia (Genome Russia Grant No. 1.52.1647.2016). L.Y.R. was supported by a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry and a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada grant awarded to Bradley White.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2018/12
Y1 - 2018/12
N2 - The threatened eastern wolf is found predominantly in protected areas of central Ontario and has an evolutionary history obscured by interbreeding with coyotes and gray wolves, which challenges its conservation status and subsequent management. Here, we used a population genomics approach to uncover spatial patterns of variation in 281 canids in central Ontario and the Great Lakes region. This represents the first genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dataset with substantial sample sizes of representative populations. Although they comprise their own genetic cluster, we found evidence of eastern wolf dispersal outside of the boundaries of protected areas, in that the frequency of eastern wolf genetic variation decreases with increasing distance from provincial parks. We detected eastern wolf alleles in admixed coyotes along the northeastern regions of Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. Our analyses confirm the unique genomic composition of eastern wolves, which are mostly restricted to small fragmented patches of protected habitat in central Ontario. We hope this work will encourage an innovative discussion regarding a plan for managed introgression, which could conserve eastern wolf genetic material in any genome regardless of their potential mosaic ancestry composition and the habitats that promote them.
AB - The threatened eastern wolf is found predominantly in protected areas of central Ontario and has an evolutionary history obscured by interbreeding with coyotes and gray wolves, which challenges its conservation status and subsequent management. Here, we used a population genomics approach to uncover spatial patterns of variation in 281 canids in central Ontario and the Great Lakes region. This represents the first genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) dataset with substantial sample sizes of representative populations. Although they comprise their own genetic cluster, we found evidence of eastern wolf dispersal outside of the boundaries of protected areas, in that the frequency of eastern wolf genetic variation decreases with increasing distance from provincial parks. We detected eastern wolf alleles in admixed coyotes along the northeastern regions of Lake Huron and Lake Ontario. Our analyses confirm the unique genomic composition of eastern wolves, which are mostly restricted to small fragmented patches of protected habitat in central Ontario. We hope this work will encourage an innovative discussion regarding a plan for managed introgression, which could conserve eastern wolf genetic material in any genome regardless of their potential mosaic ancestry composition and the habitats that promote them.
KW - Canine
KW - Conservation genomics
KW - Geographic isolation
KW - Restriction-site associated DNA
KW - Spatial structure
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85058562155&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85058562155&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/genes9120606
DO - 10.3390/genes9120606
M3 - Article
C2 - 30518163
AN - SCOPUS:85058562155
SN - 2073-4425
VL - 9
JO - Genes
JF - Genes
IS - 12
M1 - 606
ER -