Phylogeographic analyses of the pampas cat (Leopardus colocola; Carnivora, Felidae) reveal a complex demographic history

The pampas cat is a small felid that occurs in open habitats throughout much of South America. Previous studies have revealed intriguing patterns of morphological differentiation and genetic structure among its populations, as well as molecular evidence for hybridization with the closely related L....

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Published inGenetics and molecular biology Vol. 41; no. 1 suppl 1; pp. 273 - 287
Main Authors da Silva Santos, Anelisie, Trigo, Tatiane Campos, de Oliveira, Tadeu Gomes, Silveira, Leandro, Eizirik, Eduardo
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Portuguese
Published Brazil Sociedade Brasileira de Genetica 2018
Sociedade Brasileira de Genética
Subjects
BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Colonization
conservation genetics
Demographics
Genetic structure
GENETICS & HEREDITY
Haplotypes
historical demography
Hybridization
Mitochondrial DNA
Pampas
Phylogeography
Population genetics
South America
population genetics
historical demography
Phylogeography
mitochondrial DNA
conservation genetics
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Summary:The pampas cat is a small felid that occurs in open habitats throughout much of South America. Previous studies have revealed intriguing patterns of morphological differentiation and genetic structure among its populations, as well as molecular evidence for hybridization with the closely related L. tigrinus. Here we report phylogeographic analyses encompassing most of its distribution (focusing particularly on Brazilian specimens, which had been poorly sampled in previous studies), using a novel dataset comprising 2,143 bp of the mitogenome, along with previously reported mtDNA sequences. Our data revealed strong population strutucture and supported a west-to-east colonization process in this species' history. We detected two population expansion events, one older (ca. 200 thousand years ago [kya]) in western South America and another more recent (ca. 60-50 kya) in eastern areas, coinciding with the expansion of savanna environments in Brazil. Analyses including L. tigrinus individuals bearing introgressed mtDNA from L. colocola showed a complete lack of shared haplotypes between species, indicating that their hybridization was ancient. Finally, we observed a close relationship between Brazilian/Uruguayan L. colocola haplotypes and those sampled in L. tigrinus, indicating that their hybridization was likely related to the demographic expansion of L. colocola into eastern South America.
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ISSN:1415-4757
1678-4685
1678-4685
DOI:10.1590/1678-4685-GMB-2017-0079