Beyond population size: Whole-genome data reveal bottleneck legacies in the peninsular Italian wolf

作者：Daniele Battilani, Roberta Gargiulo, Romolo Caniglia, Elena Fabbri, Jazmín Ramos‐Madrigal, Claudia Fontsere, Marta Maria Ciucani, Shyam Gopalakrishnan, Matteo Girardi, Ilaria Fracasso, Matteo Mastroiaco, Paolo Ciucci, Cristiano Vernesi · 发表于：Journal of Heredity · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1093/jhered/esae041 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock、Genetic diversity and population structure、Wildlife Ecology and Conservation

Preserving genetic diversity and adaptive potential while avoiding inbreeding depression is crucial for the long-term conservation of natural populations. Despite demographic increases, traces of past bottleneck events at the genomic level should be carefully considered for population management. From this perspective, the peninsular Italian wolf is a paradigmatic case. After being on the brink of extinction in the late 1960s, peninsular Italian wolves rebounded and recolonized most of the peninsula aided by conservation measures, including habitat and legal protection. Notwithstanding their demographic recovery, a comprehensive understanding of the genomic consequences of the historical bottleneck in Italian wolves is still lacking. To fill this gap, we sequenced whole genomes of 13 individuals sampled in the core historical range of the species in Central Italy to conduct population genomic analyses, including a comparison with wolves from two highly-inbred wolf populations (i.e. Scandinavia and Isle Royale). We found that peninsular Italian wolves, despite their recent recovery, still exhibit relatively low genetic diversity, a small effective population size, signatures of inbreeding, and a non-negligible genetic load. Our findings indicate that the peninsular Italian wolf population is still susceptible to bottleneck legacies, which could lead to local inbreeding depression in case of population reduction or fragmentations. This study emphasizes the importance of conside...