TY  - JOUR
A1  - Barlow, Axel
A1  - Cahill, James A.
A1  - Hartmann, Stefanie
A1  - Theunert, Christoph
A1  - Xenikoudakis, Georgios
A1  - Gonzalez-Fortes, Gloria M.
A1  - Paijmans, Johanna L. A.
A1  - Rabeder, Gernot
A1  - Frischauf, Christine
A1  - Garcia-Vazquez, Ana
A1  - Murtskhvaladze, Marine
A1  - Saarma, Urmas
A1  - Anijalg, Peeter
A1  - Skrbinsek, Tomaz
A1  - Bertorelle, Giorgio
A1  - Gasparian, Boris
A1  - Bar-Oz, Guy
A1  - Pinhasi, Ron
A1  - Slatkin, Montgomery
A1  - Dalen, Love
A1  - Shapiro, Beth
A1  - Hofreiter, Michael
T1  - Partial genomic survival of cave bears in living brown bears
JF  - Nature Ecology & Evolution
N2  - Although many large mammal species went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, their DNA may persist due to past episodes of interspecies admixture. However, direct empirical evidence of the persistence of ancient alleles remains scarce. Here, we present multifold coverage genomic data from four Late Pleistocene cave bears (Ursus spelaeus complex) and show that cave bears hybridized with brown bears (Ursus arctos) during the Pleistocene. We develop an approach to assess both the directionality and relative timing of gene flow. We find that segments of cave bear DNA still persist in the genomes of living brown bears, with cave bears contributing 0.9 to 2.4% of the genomes of all brown bears investigated. Our results show that even though extinction is typically considered as absolute, following admixture, fragments of the gene pool of extinct species can survive for tens of thousands of years in the genomes of extant recipient species.
Y1  - 2018
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0654-8
SN  - 2397-334X
VL  - 2
IS  - 10
SP  - 1563
EP  - 1570
PB  - Nature Publ. Group
CY  - London
ER  -