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Complete Genomes Reveal Signatures of Demographic and Genetic Declines in the Woolly Mammoth
- Source :
- Current Biology. 25:1395-1400
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2015.
-
Abstract
- Summary The processes leading up to species extinctions are typically characterized by prolonged declines in population size and geographic distribution, followed by a phase in which populations are very small and may be subject to intrinsic threats, including loss of genetic diversity and inbreeding [1]. However, whether such genetic factors have had an impact on species prior to their extinction is unclear [2, 3]; examining this would require a detailed reconstruction of a species' demographic history as well as changes in genome-wide diversity leading up to its extinction. Here, we present high-quality complete genome sequences from two woolly mammoths ( Mammuthus primigenius ). The first mammoth was sequenced at 17.1-fold coverage and dates to ∼4,300 years before present, representing one of the last surviving individuals on Wrangel Island. The second mammoth, sequenced at 11.2-fold coverage, was obtained from an ∼44,800-year-old specimen from the Late Pleistocene population in northeastern Siberia. The demographic trajectories inferred from the two genomes are qualitatively similar and reveal a population bottleneck during the Middle or Early Pleistocene, and a more recent severe decline in the ancestors of the Wrangel mammoth at the end of the last glaciation. A comparison of the two genomes shows that the Wrangel mammoth has a 20% reduction in heterozygosity as well as a 28-fold increase in the fraction of the genome that comprises runs of homozygosity. We conclude that the population on Wrangel Island, which was the last surviving woolly mammoth population, was subject to reduced genetic diversity shortly before it became extinct.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Heterozygote
Woolly mammoth
Demographic history
Population
Biodiversity
Extinction, Biological
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Article
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Mammoths
03 medical and health sciences
Animals
education
030304 developmental biology
Mammoth
Population Density
0303 health sciences
education.field_of_study
Genetic diversity
Genome
Extinction
Agricultural and Biological Sciences(all)
biology
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology(all)
Ecology
Genetic Variation
Sequence Analysis, DNA
biology.organism_classification
Siberia
Genetics, Population
Population bottleneck
Evolutionary biology
Female
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 09609822
- Volume :
- 25
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Current Biology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....942981d80ae60f2813fa8637f1525c59