Postglacial dispersal of the European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) on the Iberian Peninsula reconstructed from nested glade and mismatch analyses of mitochondrial DNA genetic variation

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2002

Authors

branco, m (Author) Other; Monnerot, M (Author) Other; ferrand, n (Author) FCUP; Templeton, AR (Author) Other

Journal

Title: EVOLUTION

Vol. 56

Pages: 792-803

ISSN: 0014-3820

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 73 Citations

Scopus - 75 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-000-PT2

Abstract (EN): Nested Glade analysis was applied to cytochrome b restriction site data previously obtained on 20 natural populations of the European rabbit across the Iberian Peninsula to test the hypothesis of postglacial dispersal from two main refugia, one in the northeast and the other in the southwest. Apart from historical fragmentation that resulted in geographic discontinuity of two distinct mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) Glades A and B, patterns of haplotype genetic variability have been shaped mostly by restricted gene flow via isolation by distance. The distribution of tip versus interior haplotypes suggests that dispersal occurred from both the southwestern and northeastern groups. Dispersal from the southwest had a north and northwest direction, whereas from the northeast it had mostly a western and southern orientation, with subsequent overlap in a southeastern-northwestern axis across the Iberian Peninsula. The analysis of the pairwise mismatch distribution of a 179-181-bp fragment of the mtDNA control region, for sewn of those populations, further supports the idea that major patterns of dispersal were in the direction of central Iberia. Additionally, rabbit populations do not show signs of any significant loss of genetic diversity in the recent past, implying that they maintained large population sues and structure throughout the ice ages. This is congruent with the fact that the Iberian Peninsula was itself a glacial refugium during Quaternary ice ages. Nonetheless, climatic oscillations of this period, although certainly milder than in northern Europe, were cuff dent to affect the range distributions of Iberian organisms.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 12