Authors
Diana Lobo, José Vicente López‐Bao, Raquel Godinho
Publication date
2023/11
Journal
Molecular Ecology
Volume
32
Issue
22
Pages
5986-5999
Description
After decades of intense persecution, the Iberian wolf subspecies faced a severe bottleneck in the 1970s that considerably reduced its range and population size, nearly leading to its extinction in central and southern Iberian Peninsula. Such population decline could have impacted the genetic diversity of Iberian wolves through different processes, namely genetic drift and dynamics of hybridization with domestic dogs. By contrasting the genomes of 68 contemporary with 54 historical samples spanning the periods before and immediately after the 1970s bottleneck, we found evidence of its impact on genetic diversity and dynamics of wolf–dog hybridization. Our genome‐wide assessment revealed that wolves and dogs form two well‐differentiated genetic groups in Iberia and that hybridization rates did not increase during the bottleneck. However, an increased number of hybrid individuals was found over time during …
Total citations
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