TY - JOUR A1 - Gaubert, Philippe A1 - Patel, Riddhi P. A1 - Veron, Geraldine A1 - Goodman, Steven M. A1 - Willsch, Maraike A1 - Vasconcelos, Raquel A1 - Lourenco, Andre A1 - Sigaud, Marie A1 - Justy, Fabienne A1 - Joshi, Bheem Dutt A1 - Fickel, Jörns A1 - Wilting, Andreas T1 - Phylogeography of the Small Indian Civet and Origin of Introductions to Western Indian Ocean Islands JF - The journal of heredity : official journal of the American Genetic Association N2 - The biogeographic dynamics affecting the Indian subcontinent, East and Southeast Asia during the Plio-Pleistocene has generated complex biodiversity patterns. We assessed the molecular biogeography of the small Indian civet (Viverricula indica) through mitogenome and cytochrome b + control region sequencing of 89 historical and modern samples to (1) establish a time-calibrated phylogeography across the species’ native range and (2) test introduction scenarios to western Indian Ocean islands. Bayesian phylogenetic analyses identified 3 geographic lineages (East Asia, sister-group to Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent + northern Indochina) diverging 3.2–2.3 million years ago (Mya), with no clear signature of past demographic expansion. Within Southeast Asia, Balinese populations separated from the rest 2.6–1.3 Mya. Western Indian Ocean populations were assigned to the Indian subcontinent + northern Indochina lineage and had the lowest mitochondrial diversity. Approximate Bayesian computation did not distinguish between single versus multiple introduction scenarios. The early diversification of the small Indian civet was likely shaped by humid periods in the Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene that created evergreen rainforest barriers, generating areas of intra-specific endemism in the Indian subcontinent, East, and Southeast Asia. Later, Pleistocene dispersals through drier conditions in South and Southeast Asia were likely, giving rise to the species’ current natural distribution. Our molecular data supported the delineation of only 4 subspecies in V. indica, including an endemic Balinese lineage. Our study also highlighted the influence of prefirst millennium AD introductions to western Indian Ocean islands, with Indian and/or Arab traders probably introducing the species for its civet oil. KW - Asia KW - biogeography KW - civet oil KW - mtDNA KW - Plio-Pleistocene KW - Viverridae Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esw085 SN - 0022-1503 SN - 1465-7333 VL - 108 SP - 270 EP - 279 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Cary ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Patel, Riddhi P. A1 - Wutke, Saskia A1 - Lenz, Dorina A1 - Mukherjee, Shomita A1 - Ramakrishnan, Uma A1 - Veron, Geraldine A1 - Fickel, Jörns A1 - Wilting, Andreas A1 - Förster, Daniel W. T1 - Genetic Structure and Phylogeography of the Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) Inferred from Mitochondrial Genomes JF - Journal of Heredity N2 - The Leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis is a habitat generalist that is widely distributed across Southeast Asia. Based on morphological traits, this species has been subdivided into 12 subspecies. Thus far, there have been few molecular studies investigating intraspecific variation, and those had been limited in geographic scope. For this reason, we aimed to study the genetic structure and evolutionary history of this species across its very large distribution range in Asia. We employed both PCR-based (short mtDNA fragments, 94 samples) and high throughput sequencing based methods (whole mitochondrial genomes, 52 samples) on archival, noninvasively collected and fresh samples to investigate the distribution of intraspecific genetic variation. Our comprehensive sampling coupled with the improved resolution of a mitochondrial genome analyses provided strong support for a deep split between Mainland and Sundaic Leopard cats. Although we identified multiple haplogroups within the species’ distribution, we found no matrilineal evidence for the distinction of 12 subspecies. In the context of Leopard cat biogeography, we cautiously recommend a revision of the Prionailurus bengalensis subspecific taxonomy: namely, a reduction to 4 subspecies (2 mainland and 2 Sundaic forms). KW - habitat generalist KW - hybrid capture KW - Leopard cat KW - mitogenome KW - mtDNA KW - Southeast Asia Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esx017 SN - 0022-1503 SN - 1465-7333 VL - 108 IS - 4 SP - 349 EP - 360 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Cary ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Salleh, Faezah Mohd A1 - Ramos-Madrigal, Jazmin A1 - Penaloza, Fernando A1 - Liu, Shanlin A1 - Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S. A1 - Patel, Riddhi P. A1 - Martins, Renata A1 - Lenz, Dorina A1 - Fickel, Jörns A1 - Roos, Christian A1 - Shamsir, Mohd Shahir A1 - Azman, Mohammad Shahfiz A1 - Lim, Burton K. A1 - Rossiter, Stephen J. A1 - Wilting, Andreas A1 - Gilbert, M. Thomas P. T1 - An expanded mammal mitogenome dataset from Southeast Asia JF - Gigascience N2 - Background: Findings: Approximately 55 gigabases of raw sequence were generated. From this data we assembled 72 complete mitogenome sequences, with an average depth of coverage of 102.9x and 55.2x for modern samples and historical samples, respectively. This dataset represents 52 species, of which 30 species had no previous mitogenome data available. The mitogenomes were geotagged to their sampling location, where known, to display a detailed geographical distribution of the species. Conclusion: KW - invertebrate-derived (iDNA) KW - metabarcoding KW - GenBank KW - Taxonomic assignment Y1 - 2017 SN - 2047-217X VL - 6 IS - 8 SP - 1 EP - 19 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Patel, Riddhi P. A1 - Lenz, Dorina A1 - Kitchener, Andrew C. A1 - Fickel, Jorns A1 - Foerster, Daniel W. A1 - Wilting, Andreas T1 - Threatened but understudied: supporting conservation by understanding the genetic structure of the flat-headed cat JF - Conservation genetics KW - Flat-headed cat KW - Habitat specialist KW - Hybrid capture KW - Mitogenome KW - MtDNA Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10592-017-0990-2 SN - 1566-0621 SN - 1572-9737 VL - 18 SP - 1423 EP - 1433 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Patel, Riddhi P. A1 - Förster, Daniel W. A1 - Kitchener, Andrew C. A1 - Rayan, Mark D. A1 - Mohamed, Shariff W. A1 - Werner, Laura A1 - Lenz, Dorina A1 - Pfestorf, Hans A1 - Kramer-Schadt, Stephanie A1 - Radchuk, Viktoriia A1 - Fickel, Jörns A1 - Wilting, Andreas T1 - Two species of Southeast Asian cats in the genus Catopuma with diverging histories: an island endemic forest specialist and a widespread habitat generalist JF - Royal Society Open Science N2 - Background. The bay cat Catopuma badia is endemic to Borneo, whereas its sister species the Asian golden cat Catopuma temminckii is distributed from the Himalayas and southern China through Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia and Sumatra. Based onmorphological data, up to five subspecies of the Asian golden cat have been recognized, but a taxonomic assessment, including molecular data and morphological characters, is still lacking. Results. We combined molecular data (whole mitochondrial genomes), morphological data (pelage) and species distribution projections (up to the Late Pleistocene) to infer how environmental changes may have influenced the distribution of these sister species over the past 120 000 years. The molecular analysis was based on sequenced mitogenomes of 3 bay cats and 40 Asian golden cats derived mainly from archival samples. Our molecular data suggested a time of split between the two species approximately 3.16 Ma and revealed very low nucleotide diversity within the Asian golden cat population, which supports recent expansion of the population. Discussion. The low nucleotide diversity suggested a population bottleneck in the Asian golden cat, possibly caused by the eruption of the Toba volcano in Northern Sumatra (approx. 74 kya), followed by a continuous population expansion in the Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene. Species distribution projections, the reconstruction of the demographic history, a genetic isolation-by-distance pattern and a gradual variation of pelage pattern support the hypothesis of a post-Toba population expansion of the Asian golden cat from south China/Indochina to PeninsularMalaysia and Sumatra. Our findings reject the current classification of five subspecies for the Asian golden cat, but instead support either a monotypic species or one comprising two subspecies: (i) the Sunda golden cat, distributed south of the Isthmus of Kra: C. t. temminckii and (ii) Indochinese, Indian, Himalayan and Chinese golden cats, occurring north of the Isthmus: C. t. moormensis. KW - Felidae KW - Southeast Asia KW - last glacial maximum KW - Toba volcanic eruption KW - hybrid capture KW - next generation sequencing Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.160350 SN - 2054-5703 VL - 3 SP - 741 EP - 752 PB - Royal Society CY - London ER -