Noninvasive genetic assessment provides evidence of extensive gene flow and possible high movement ability in the African golden wolf

Publication date: September 2018Source: Mammalian Biology, Volume 92Author(s): Yamna Karssene, Mohsen Chammem, Carsten Nowak, Koen de Smet, Diana Castro, Ahmed Eddine, Susana Lopes, Violeta Muñoz-Fuentes, Berardino Cocchiararo, Dick Klees, Peter Van Der Leer, Said Nouira, Raquel GodinhoAbstractThe African golden wolf, Canis anthus, is a newly recognized medium-sized canid species from North Africa, which has remained poorly studied to date. We applied genetic methods for individual identification of non-invasively collected samples (n = 93) of the African golden wolf in Tunisia, assessing their genetic diversity and structure. The mitochondrial control region exhibited high haplotype diversity (Hd = 0.907 ± 0.018) with 15 haplotypes detected among 28 individuals. Similarly, a set of 15 microsatellite loci revealed high genetic diversity at the nuclear level (expected heterozygosity = 0.83 ± 0.04; average number of alleles = 8.30 ± 0.99). The Bayesian model-based clustering method implemented in STRUCTURE did not reveal population structure in African golden wolves within Tunisia. This result was corroborated by the Discriminant Analysis of Principal Components where no clear clusters were observed. Based on seven individuals that were found multiple times among samples, we estimated straight distance movements up to 230 km. Our results provide movement lengths for the species and no evidence for biogeographical structure of genetic diversity ...
Source: Mammalian Biology - Category: Biology Source Type: research