@misc{WestburyBalekaBarlowetal.2017, author = {Westbury, Michael V. and Baleka, Sina Isabelle and Barlow, Axel and Hartmann, Stefanie and Paijmans, Johanna L. A. and Kramarz, Alejandro and Forasiepi, Anal{\´i}a M. and Bond, Mariano and Gelfo, Javier N. and Reguero, Marcelo A. and L{\´o}pez-Mendoza, Patricio and Taglioretti, Matias and Scaglia, Fernando and Rinderknecht, Andr{\´e}s and Jones, Washington and Mena, Francisco and Billet, Guillaume and de Muizon, Christian and Aguilar, Jos{\´e} Luis and MacPhee, Ross D.E. and Hofreiter, Michael}, title = {A mitogenomic timetree for Darwin's enigmatic South American mammal Macrauchenia patachonica}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {793}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44080}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-440801}, pages = {8}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The unusual mix of morphological traits displayed by extinct South American native ungulates (SANUs) confounded both Charles Darwin, who first discovered them, and Richard Owen, who tried to resolve their relationships. Here we report an almost complete mitochondrial genome for the litoptern Macrauchenia. Our dated phylogenetic tree places Macrauchenia as sister to Perissodactyla, but close to the radiation of major lineages within Laurasiatheria. This position is consistent with a divergence estimate of B66Ma (95\% credibility interval, 56.64-77.83 Ma) obtained for the split between Macrauchenia and other Panperissodactyla. Combined with their morphological distinctiveness, this evidence supports the positioning of Litopterna (possibly in company with other SANU groups) as a separate order within Laurasiatheria. We also show that, when using strict criteria, extinct taxa marked by deep divergence times and a lack of close living relatives may still be amenable to palaeogenomic analysis through iterative mapping against more distant relatives.}, language = {en} } @article{WestburyBalekaBarlowetal.2017, author = {Westbury, Michael V. and Baleka, Sina Isabelle and Barlow, Axel and Hartmann, Stefanie and Paijmans, Johanna L. A. and Kramarz, Alejandro and Forasiepi, Analia M. and Bond, Mariano and Gelfo, Javier N. and Reguero, Marcelo A. and Lopez-Mendoza, Patricio and Taglioretti, Matias and Scaglia, Fernando and Rinderknecht, Andres and Jones, Washington and Mena, Francisco and Billet, Guillaume and de Muizon, Christian and Luis Aguilar, Jose and MacPhee, Ross D. E. and Hofreiter, Michael}, title = {A mitogenomic timetree for Darwin's enigmatic South American mammal Macrauchenia patachonica}, series = {Nature Communications}, volume = {8}, journal = {Nature Communications}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {2041-1723}, doi = {10.1038/ncomms15951}, pages = {8}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The unusual mix of morphological traits displayed by extinct South American native ungulates (SANUs) confounded both Charles Darwin, who first discovered them, and Richard Owen, who tried to resolve their relationships. Here we report an almost complete mitochondrial genome for the litoptern Macrauchenia. Our dated phylogenetic tree places Macrauchenia as sister to Perissodactyla, but close to the radiation of major lineages within Laurasiatheria. This position is consistent with a divergence estimate of B66Ma (95\% credibility interval, 56.64-77.83 Ma) obtained for the split between Macrauchenia and other Panperissodactyla. Combined with their morphological distinctiveness, this evidence supports the positioning of Litopterna (possibly in company with other SANU groups) as a separate order within Laurasiatheria. We also show that, when using strict criteria, extinct taxa marked by deep divergence times and a lack of close living relatives may still be amenable to palaeogenomic analysis through iterative mapping against more distant relatives.}, language = {en} } @article{ShengBaslerJietal.2019, author = {Sheng, Gui-Lian and Basler, Nikolas and Ji, Xue-Ping and Paijmans, Johanna L. A. and Alberti, Federica and Preick, Michaela and Hartmann, Stefanie and Westbury, Michael V. and Yuan, Jun-Xia and Jablonski, Nina G. and Xenikoudakis, Georgios and Hou, Xin-Dong and Xiao, Bo and Liu, Jian-Hui and Hofreiter, Michael and Lai, Xu-Long and Barlow, Axel}, title = {Paleogenome reveals genetic contribution of extinct giant panda to extant populations}, series = {Current biology}, volume = {29}, journal = {Current biology}, number = {10}, publisher = {Cell Press}, address = {Cambridge}, issn = {0960-9822}, doi = {10.1016/j.cub.2019.04.021}, pages = {1695 -- 1700}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Historically, the giant panda was widely distributed from northern China to southwestern Asia [1]. As a result of range contraction and fragmentation, extant individuals are currently restricted to fragmented mountain ranges on the eastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, where they are distributed among three major population clusters [2]. However, little is known about the genetic consequences of this dramatic range contraction. For example, were regions where giant pandas previously existed occupied by ancestors of present-day populations, or were these regions occupied by genetically distinct populations that are now extinct? If so, is there any contribution of these extinct populations to the genomes of giant pandas living today? To investigate these questions, we sequenced the nuclear genome of an similar to 5,000-year-old giant panda from Jiangdongshan, Teng-chong County in Yunnan Province, China. We find that this individual represents a genetically distinct population that diverged prior to the diversification of modern giant panda populations. We find evidence of differential admixture with this ancient population among modern individuals originating from different populations as well as within the same population. We also find evidence for directional gene flow, which transferred alleles from the ancient population into the modern giant panda lineages. A variable proportion of the genomes of extant individuals is therefore likely derived from the ancient population represented by our sequenced individual. Although extant giant panda populations retain reasonable genetic diversity, our results suggest that this represents only part of the genetic diversity this species harbored prior to its recent range contractions.}, language = {en} } @misc{WestburyHartmannBarlowetal.2018, author = {Westbury, Michael V. and Hartmann, Stefanie and Barlow, Axel and Wiesel, Ingrid and Leo, Viyanna and Welch, Rebecca and Parker, Daniel M. and Sicks, Florian and Ludwig, Arne and Dalen, Love and Hofreiter, Michael}, title = {Extended and continuous decline in effective population size results in low genomic diversity in the world's rarest hyena species, the brown hyena}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {589}, issn = {1866-8372}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-41413}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-414132}, pages = {13}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Hyenas (family Hyaenidae), as the sister group to cats (family Felidae), represent a deeply diverging branch within the cat-like carnivores (Feliformia). With an estimated population size of <10,000 individuals worldwide, the brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea) represents the rarest of the four extant hyena species and has been listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Here, we report a high-coverage genome from a captive bred brown hyena and both mitochondrial and low-coverage nuclear genomes of 14 wild-caught brown hyena individuals from across southern Africa. We find that brown hyena harbor extremely low genetic diversity on both the mitochondrial and nuclear level, most likely resulting from a continuous and ongoing decline in effective population size that started similar to 1 Ma and dramatically accelerated towards the end of the Pleistocene. Despite the strikingly low genetic diversity, we find no evidence of inbreeding within the captive bred individual and reveal phylogeographic structure, suggesting the existence of several potential subpopulations within the species.}, language = {en} } @article{WestburyHartmannBarlowetal.2018, author = {Westbury, Michael V. and Hartmann, Stefanie and Barlow, Axel and Wiesel, Ingrid and Leo, Viyanna and Welch, Rebecca and Parker, Daniel M. and Sicks, Florian and Ludwig, Arne and Dalen, Love and Hofreiter, Michael}, title = {Extended and continuous decline in effective population size results in low genomic diversity in the world's rarest hyena species, the brown hyena}, series = {Molecular biology and evolution}, volume = {35}, journal = {Molecular biology and evolution}, number = {5}, publisher = {Oxford Univ. Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0737-4038}, doi = {10.1093/molbev/msy037}, pages = {1225 -- 1237}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Hyenas (family Hyaenidae), as the sister group to cats (family Felidae), represent a deeply diverging branch within the cat-like carnivores (Feliformia). With an estimated population size of <10,000 individuals worldwide, the brown hyena (Parahyaena brunnea) represents the rarest of the four extant hyena species and has been listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN. Here, we report a high-coverage genome from a captive bred brown hyena and both mitochondrial and low-coverage nuclear genomes of 14 wild-caught brown hyena individuals from across southern Africa. We find that brown hyena harbor extremely low genetic diversity on both the mitochondrial and nuclear level, most likely resulting from a continuous and ongoing decline in effective population size that started similar to 1 Ma and dramatically accelerated towards the end of the Pleistocene. Despite the strikingly low genetic diversity, we find no evidence of inbreeding within the captive bred individual and reveal phylogeographic structure, suggesting the existence of several potential subpopulations within the species.}, language = {en} }