Title
The extinct Sicilian wolf shows a complex history of isolation and admixture with ancient dogs
Language
English
Description (en)
The Sicilian wolf remained isolated in Sicily from the end of the Pleistocene until its extermination in the 1930s-1960s. Given its long-term isolation on the island and distinctive morphology, the genetic origin of the Sicilian wolf remains debated. We sequenced four nuclear genomes and five mitogenomes from the seven existing museum specimens to investigate the Sicilian wolf ancestry, relationships with extant and extinct wolves and dogs, and diversity. Our results show that the Sicilian wolf is most closely related to the Italian wolf but carries ancestry from a lineage related to European Eneolithic and Bronze Age dogs. The average nucleotide diversity of the Sicilian wolf was half of the Italian wolf, with 37-50% of its genome contained in runs of homozygosity. Overall, we show that, by the time it went extinct, the Sicilian wolf had high inbreeding and low-genetic diversity, consistent with a population in an insular environment.
Keywords (en)
Convergent Evolution; Canis-Lupus; Sequence; Genomes; Wolves; Consequences; Homozygosity; Chromosome; Framework; Alignment
DOI
10.1016/j.isci.2023.107307
Author of the digital object
Marta Maria Ciucani (University of Copenhagen)
M. Thomas P. Gilbert (University of Copenhagen / Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Shyam Gopalakrishnan (University of Copenhagen)
Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding (University of Copenhagen)
Elisabetta Cilli (University of Bologna)
Francesco Maria Angelici (FIZV / National Center for Wildlife)
Lorenzo Rossi (Museo dell'Ecologia di Cesena)
Laurent Frantz (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich / Queen Mary University of London)
Oliver Smith (University of Copenhagen)
Hans K. Stenøien (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Cristiano Vernesi (Fondazione Edmund Mach)
Luigi Boitani (Università di Roma La Sapienza)
Paolo Ciucci (Università di Roma La Sapienza)
Sabrina Lo Brutto (University of Palermo)
Robert W. Mysłajek (University of Warsaw)
Sabina Nowak (University of Warsaw)
Ladislav Paule (Technical University)
Steve Smith (University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna)
Raquel Godinho (University of Porto)
Carsten Nowak (Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt)
Barbora Černá Bolfíková (Czech University of Life Sciences)
Pavel Hulva (Charles University)
Maris Hindrikson (University of Tartu)
Urmas Saarma (University of Tartu)
Mikael Åkesson (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)
Jane Moore (Società Amatori Cirneco dell'Etna)
Linas Balčiauskas (Nature Research Centre)
Laima Baltrūnaitė (Nature Research Centre)
Ilpo Kojola (Natural Resources Institute Finland)
Jouni Aspi (University of Oulu)
Cecilie G. Clausen (University of Copenhagen)
Ilaria Fracasso (Fondazione Edmund Mach)
Liam Thomas Lanigan (University of Copenhagen)
Camilla Hjorth Scharff-Olsen (University of Copenhagen)
Xin Sun (University of Copenhagen)
Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal (University of Copenhagen)
Germán Hernández-Alonso (University of Copenhagen)
Alberto Carmagnini (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich / Queen Mary University of London)
Sabhrina Gita Aninta (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich / Queen Mary University of London)
Format
application/pdf
Size
3.1 MB
Licence Selected
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International
Type of publication
Article
Name of Publication (en)
iScience
Pages or Volume
23
Volume
26
Number
8
Publisher
Cell Press
Publication Date
2023
Citable links
Persistent identifier
https://phaidra.vetmeduni.ac.at/o:2492
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.107307
Content
Details
Object type
PDFDocument
Format
application/pdf
Created
06.02.2024 10:24:44
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