Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species.
The golden jackal of Africa (Canis aureus) has long been considered a conspecific of jackals distributed throughout Eurasia, with the nearest source populations in the Middle East. However, two recent reports found that mitochondrial haplotypes of some African golden jackals aligned more closely to...
Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
eScholarship, University of California
2015
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ck5m121 |
id |
ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt2ck5m121 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt2ck5m121 2023-05-15T15:51:00+02:00 Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. Koepfli, Klaus-Peter Pollinger, John Godinho, Raquel Robinson, Jacqueline Lea, Amanda Hendricks, Sarah Schweizer, Rena M Thalmann, Olaf Silva, Pedro Fan, Zhenxin Yurchenko, Andrey A Dobrynin, Pavel Makunin, Alexey Cahill, James A Shapiro, Beth Álvares, Francisco Brito, José C Geffen, Eli Leonard, Jennifer A Helgen, Kristofer M Johnson, Warren E O'Brien, Stephen J Van Valkenburgh, Blaire Wayne, Robert K 2158 - 2165 2015-08-01 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ck5m121 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt2ck5m121 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ck5m121 public Current biology : CB, vol 25, iss 16 Animals Jackals Wolves Sequence Analysis DNA Phylogeny Genome Molecular Sequence Data Africa Female Male Biological Evolution Developmental Biology Biological Sciences Medical and Health Sciences Psychology and Cognitive Sciences article 2015 ftcdlib 2020-11-01T11:22:44Z The golden jackal of Africa (Canis aureus) has long been considered a conspecific of jackals distributed throughout Eurasia, with the nearest source populations in the Middle East. However, two recent reports found that mitochondrial haplotypes of some African golden jackals aligned more closely to gray wolves (Canis lupus), which is surprising given the absence of gray wolves in Africa and the phenotypic divergence between the two species. Moreover, these results imply the existence of a previously unrecognized phylogenetically distinct species despite a long history of taxonomic work on African canids. To test the distinct-species hypothesis and understand the evolutionary history that would account for this puzzling result, we analyzed extensive genomic data including mitochondrial genome sequences, sequences from 20 autosomal loci (17 introns and 3 exon segments), microsatellite loci, X- and Y-linked zinc-finger protein gene (ZFX and ZFY) sequences, and whole-genome nuclear sequences in African and Eurasian golden jackals and gray wolves. Our results provide consistent and robust evidence that populations of golden jackals from Africa and Eurasia represent distinct monophyletic lineages separated for more than one million years, sufficient to merit formal recognition as different species: C. anthus (African golden wolf) and C. aureus (Eurasian golden jackal). Using morphologic data, we demonstrate a striking morphologic similarity between East African and Eurasian golden jackals, suggesting parallelism, which may have misled taxonomists and likely reflects uniquely intense interspecific competition in the East African carnivore guild. Our study shows how ecology can confound taxonomy if interspecific competition constrains size diversification. Article in Journal/Newspaper Canis lupus University of California: eScholarship |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Animals Jackals Wolves Sequence Analysis DNA Phylogeny Genome Molecular Sequence Data Africa Female Male Biological Evolution Developmental Biology Biological Sciences Medical and Health Sciences Psychology and Cognitive Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Animals Jackals Wolves Sequence Analysis DNA Phylogeny Genome Molecular Sequence Data Africa Female Male Biological Evolution Developmental Biology Biological Sciences Medical and Health Sciences Psychology and Cognitive Sciences Koepfli, Klaus-Peter Pollinger, John Godinho, Raquel Robinson, Jacqueline Lea, Amanda Hendricks, Sarah Schweizer, Rena M Thalmann, Olaf Silva, Pedro Fan, Zhenxin Yurchenko, Andrey A Dobrynin, Pavel Makunin, Alexey Cahill, James A Shapiro, Beth Álvares, Francisco Brito, José C Geffen, Eli Leonard, Jennifer A Helgen, Kristofer M Johnson, Warren E O'Brien, Stephen J Van Valkenburgh, Blaire Wayne, Robert K Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. |
topic_facet |
Animals Jackals Wolves Sequence Analysis DNA Phylogeny Genome Molecular Sequence Data Africa Female Male Biological Evolution Developmental Biology Biological Sciences Medical and Health Sciences Psychology and Cognitive Sciences |
description |
The golden jackal of Africa (Canis aureus) has long been considered a conspecific of jackals distributed throughout Eurasia, with the nearest source populations in the Middle East. However, two recent reports found that mitochondrial haplotypes of some African golden jackals aligned more closely to gray wolves (Canis lupus), which is surprising given the absence of gray wolves in Africa and the phenotypic divergence between the two species. Moreover, these results imply the existence of a previously unrecognized phylogenetically distinct species despite a long history of taxonomic work on African canids. To test the distinct-species hypothesis and understand the evolutionary history that would account for this puzzling result, we analyzed extensive genomic data including mitochondrial genome sequences, sequences from 20 autosomal loci (17 introns and 3 exon segments), microsatellite loci, X- and Y-linked zinc-finger protein gene (ZFX and ZFY) sequences, and whole-genome nuclear sequences in African and Eurasian golden jackals and gray wolves. Our results provide consistent and robust evidence that populations of golden jackals from Africa and Eurasia represent distinct monophyletic lineages separated for more than one million years, sufficient to merit formal recognition as different species: C. anthus (African golden wolf) and C. aureus (Eurasian golden jackal). Using morphologic data, we demonstrate a striking morphologic similarity between East African and Eurasian golden jackals, suggesting parallelism, which may have misled taxonomists and likely reflects uniquely intense interspecific competition in the East African carnivore guild. Our study shows how ecology can confound taxonomy if interspecific competition constrains size diversification. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Koepfli, Klaus-Peter Pollinger, John Godinho, Raquel Robinson, Jacqueline Lea, Amanda Hendricks, Sarah Schweizer, Rena M Thalmann, Olaf Silva, Pedro Fan, Zhenxin Yurchenko, Andrey A Dobrynin, Pavel Makunin, Alexey Cahill, James A Shapiro, Beth Álvares, Francisco Brito, José C Geffen, Eli Leonard, Jennifer A Helgen, Kristofer M Johnson, Warren E O'Brien, Stephen J Van Valkenburgh, Blaire Wayne, Robert K |
author_facet |
Koepfli, Klaus-Peter Pollinger, John Godinho, Raquel Robinson, Jacqueline Lea, Amanda Hendricks, Sarah Schweizer, Rena M Thalmann, Olaf Silva, Pedro Fan, Zhenxin Yurchenko, Andrey A Dobrynin, Pavel Makunin, Alexey Cahill, James A Shapiro, Beth Álvares, Francisco Brito, José C Geffen, Eli Leonard, Jennifer A Helgen, Kristofer M Johnson, Warren E O'Brien, Stephen J Van Valkenburgh, Blaire Wayne, Robert K |
author_sort |
Koepfli, Klaus-Peter |
title |
Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. |
title_short |
Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. |
title_full |
Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. |
title_fullStr |
Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Genome-wide Evidence Reveals that African and Eurasian Golden Jackals Are Distinct Species. |
title_sort |
genome-wide evidence reveals that african and eurasian golden jackals are distinct species. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ck5m121 |
op_coverage |
2158 - 2165 |
genre |
Canis lupus |
genre_facet |
Canis lupus |
op_source |
Current biology : CB, vol 25, iss 16 |
op_relation |
qt2ck5m121 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ck5m121 |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766386029159251968 |