Stoats ( Mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of Ireland
The current Irish biota has controversial origins. Ireland was largely covered by ice at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and may not have had land connections to continental Europe and Britain thereafter. Given the potential difficulty for terrestrial species to colonize Ireland except by human intro...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 2024-09-15T18:18:58+00:00 Stoats ( Mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of Ireland Martínková, Natália McDonald, Robbie A Searle, Jeremy B 2007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 274, issue 1616, page 1387-1393 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 journal-article 2007 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 2024-08-12T04:27:51Z The current Irish biota has controversial origins. Ireland was largely covered by ice at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and may not have had land connections to continental Europe and Britain thereafter. Given the potential difficulty for terrestrial species to colonize Ireland except by human introduction, we investigated the stoat ( Mustela erminea ) as a possible cold-tolerant model species for natural colonization of Ireland at the LGM itself. The stoat currently lives in Ireland and Britain and across much of the Holarctic region including the high Arctic. We studied mitochondrial DNA variation (1771 bp) over the whole geographical range of the stoat (186 individuals and 142 localities), but with particular emphasis on the British Isles and continental Europe. Irish stoats showed considerably greater nucleotide and haplotype diversity than those in Britain. Bayesian dating is consistent with an LGM colonization of Ireland and suggests that Britain was colonized later. This later colonization probably reflects a replacement event, which can explain why Irish and British stoats belong to different mitochondrial lineages as well as different morphologically defined subspecies. The molecular data strongly indicate that stoats colonized Ireland naturally and that their genetic variability reflects accumulation of mutations during a population expansion on the island. Article in Journal/Newspaper Mustela erminea The Royal Society Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 274 1616 1387 1393 |
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crroyalsociety |
language |
English |
description |
The current Irish biota has controversial origins. Ireland was largely covered by ice at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and may not have had land connections to continental Europe and Britain thereafter. Given the potential difficulty for terrestrial species to colonize Ireland except by human introduction, we investigated the stoat ( Mustela erminea ) as a possible cold-tolerant model species for natural colonization of Ireland at the LGM itself. The stoat currently lives in Ireland and Britain and across much of the Holarctic region including the high Arctic. We studied mitochondrial DNA variation (1771 bp) over the whole geographical range of the stoat (186 individuals and 142 localities), but with particular emphasis on the British Isles and continental Europe. Irish stoats showed considerably greater nucleotide and haplotype diversity than those in Britain. Bayesian dating is consistent with an LGM colonization of Ireland and suggests that Britain was colonized later. This later colonization probably reflects a replacement event, which can explain why Irish and British stoats belong to different mitochondrial lineages as well as different morphologically defined subspecies. The molecular data strongly indicate that stoats colonized Ireland naturally and that their genetic variability reflects accumulation of mutations during a population expansion on the island. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Martínková, Natália McDonald, Robbie A Searle, Jeremy B |
spellingShingle |
Martínková, Natália McDonald, Robbie A Searle, Jeremy B Stoats ( Mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of Ireland |
author_facet |
Martínková, Natália McDonald, Robbie A Searle, Jeremy B |
author_sort |
Martínková, Natália |
title |
Stoats ( Mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of Ireland |
title_short |
Stoats ( Mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of Ireland |
title_full |
Stoats ( Mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of Ireland |
title_fullStr |
Stoats ( Mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of Ireland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Stoats ( Mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of Ireland |
title_sort |
stoats ( mustela erminea) provide evidence of natural overland colonization of ireland |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2007 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 |
genre |
Mustela erminea |
genre_facet |
Mustela erminea |
op_source |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences volume 274, issue 1616, page 1387-1393 ISSN 0962-8452 1471-2954 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2007.0334 |
container_title |
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |
container_volume |
274 |
container_issue |
1616 |
container_start_page |
1387 |
op_container_end_page |
1393 |
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1810457050307624960 |