Ancient DNA of narrow-headed vole reveal common features of the Late Pleistocene population dynamics in cold-adapted small mammals.

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
• Main Authors: Baca, Mateusz, Popović, Danijela, Agadzhanyan, Alexander K., Baca, Katarzyna, Conard, Nicholas J., Fewlass, Helen, Filek, Thomas, Golubiński, Michał, Horáček, Ivan, Knul, Monika V., Krajcarz, Magdalena, Krokhaleva, Maria, Lebreton, Loïc, Lemanik, Anna, Maul, Lutz C., Nagel, Doris, Noiret, Pierre, Primault, Jérome, Rekovets, Leonid, Rhodes, Sara E., Royer, Aurélien, Serdyuk, Natalia V., Soressi, Marie, Stewart, John R., Strukova, Tatiana, Talamo, Sahra, Wilczyński, Jarosław, Nadachowski, Adam
• Other Authors: Centre of New Technologies, University of Warsaw (UW), Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow (RAS), Ältere Urgeschichte und Quartärökologie, University of Tübingen, Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment (HEP), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen = Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen, Department of Human Evolution Leipzig, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft-Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Institut für Paläontologie, Universität Wien, Department of Zoology, Univerzita Karlova Praha, Česká republika = Charles University Prague, Czech Republic (UK), Department of Archaeology, Anthropology and Geography, University of Winchester, Institute of Archaeology, Nicolaus Copernicus University Toruń, Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology, Ural Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences (UB RAS), Histoire naturelle de l'Homme préhistorique (HNHP), Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN)-Université de Perpignan Via Domitia (UPVD)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Área de prehistòria, Departament d'història i història de l'Art, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals, Polska Akademia Nauk = Polish Academy of Sciences = Académie polonaise des sciences (PAN), Senckenberg Research Station of Quaternary Palaeontology, TraceoLab, Université de Liège, DRAC-SRA Nouvelle Aquitaine, Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, Interdsciplinay Center for Archaeology and the Evolution of Human Behaviour (ICArEHB), Biogéosciences UMR 6282 (BGS), Université de Bourgogne (UB)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Faculty of Archaeology, Universiteit Leiden = Leiden University, Bournemouth University Poole (BU), Department Chemistry G Ciamician, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna (UNIBO), This research was supported by the Polish National ScienceCentre grants nos: 2017/25/B/NZ8/02005 to A.N. and 2020/39/B/NZ8/02853 to M.B. Fieldwork at Roc-en-Pail (France) was grantedby the French Ministry of Culture (MCC) through the Pays-de-la-Loire Regional Archaeology Service (DRAC/SRA) and in 2016 bythe Mécène & Loire Foundation (http://www.mecene-et-loire.fr/).Fieldwork at Teufelslucken (Austria) was granted by the GeologicalSurvey of Lower Austria (grant no. BD1-G-5306/001-2019). MarieSoressi was supported by the NWO VICI award (VI.C.191.O70).Mar.K. was supported by Russian Science Foundation grant 22-14-00332. Loïc Lebreton has received funding from the EuropeanUnion’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme underthe Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101034349 andthe State Research Agency of the Spanish Ministry of Science andInnovation through the Program Maria de Maeztu Unit ofExcellence (grant no. CEX2019-000945-M).
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: Pleistocene; climate change; habitat; interstadials; mitochondrial DNA; paleoclimate; MESH: Animals; MESH: DNA; Ancient; MESH: Arvicolinae; MESH: Bayes Theorem; MESH: Phylogeny; MESH: Population Dynamics; Mitochondrial; MESH: Genetic Variation; [SDU.STU.PG]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences/Paleontology; Common vole; Tundra
• Online Access: https://u-bourgogne.hal.science/hal-04064818; https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2238

International audience The narrow-headed vole, collared lemming and common vole were the most abundant small mammal species across the Eurasian Late Pleistocene steppe-tundra environment. Previous ancient DNA studies of the collared lemming and common vole have revealed dynamic population histories shaped by climatic fluctuations. To investigate the extent to which species with similar adaptations share common evolutionary histories, we generated a dataset comprised the mitochondrial genomes of 139 ancient and 6 modern narrow-headed voles from several sites across Europe and northwestern Asia covering approximately the last 100 thousand years (kyr). We inferred Bayesian time-aware phylogenies using 11 radiocarbon-dated samples to calibrate the molecular clock. Divergence of the main mtDNA lineages across the three species occurred during marine isotope stages (MIS) 7 and MIS 5, suggesting a common response of species adapted to open habitat during interglacials. We identified several time-structured mtDNA lineages in European narrow-headed vole, suggesting lineage turnover. The timing of some of these turnovers was synchronous across the three species, allowing us to identify the main drivers of the Late Pleistocene dynamics of steppe- and cold-adapted species.