TY  - JOUR
A1  - Westbury, Michael V.
A1  - Hartmann, Stefanie
A1  - Barlow, Axel
A1  - Wiesel, Ingrid
A1  - Leo, Viyanna
A1  - Welch, Rebecca
A1  - Parker, Daniel M.
A1  - Sicks, Florian
A1  - Ludwig, Arne
A1  - Dalen, Love
A1  - Hofreiter, Michael
T1  - Extended and continuous decline in effective population size results in low genomic diversity in the world's rarest hyena species, the brown hyena
JF  - Molecular biology and evolution
N2  - 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.
KW  - evolution
KW  - hyena
KW  - genomics
KW  - population genomics
KW  - diversity
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msy037
SN  - 0737-4038
SN  - 1537-1719
VL  - 35
IS  - 5
SP  - 1225
EP  - 1237
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Wutke, Saskia
A1  - Sandoval-Castellanos, Edson
A1  - Benecke, Norbert
A1  - Döhle, Hans-Jürgen
A1  - Friederich, Susanne
A1  - Gonzalez, Javier
A1  - Hofreiter, Michael
A1  - Lougas, Lembi
A1  - Magnell, Ola
A1  - Malaspinas, Anna-Sapfo
A1  - Morales-Muniz, Arturo
A1  - Orlando, Ludovic
A1  - Reissmann, Monika
A1  - Trinks, Alexandra
A1  - Ludwig, Arne
T1  - Decline of genetic diversity in ancient domestic stallions in Europe
JF  - Science Advances
N2  - Present-day domestic horses are immensely diverse in their maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA, yet they show very little variation on their paternally inherited Y chromosome. Although it has recently been shown that Y chromosomal diversity in domestic horses was higher at least until the Iron Age, when and why this diversity disappeared remain controversial questions. We genotyped 16 recently discovered Y chromosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 96 ancient Eurasian stallions spanning the early domestication stages (Copper and Bronze Age) to the Middle Ages. Using this Y chromosomal time series, which covers nearly the entire history of horse domestication, we reveal how Y chromosomal diversity changed over time. Our results also show that the lack of multiple stallion lineages in the extant domestic population is caused by neither a founder effect nor random demographic effects but instead is the result of artificial selection-initially during the Iron Age by nomadic people from the Eurasian steppes and later during the Roman period. Moreover, the modern domestic haplotype probably derived from another, already advantageous, haplotype, most likely after the beginning of the domestication. In line with recent findings indicating that the Przewalski and domestic horse lineages remained connected by gene flow after they diverged about 45,000 years ago, we present evidence for Y chromosomal introgression of Przewalski horses into the gene pool of European domestic horses at least until medieval times.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aap9691
SN  - 2375-2548
VL  - 4
IS  - 4
PB  - American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science
CY  - Washington
ER  -