Reconstructing the genetic composition of the Grey wolf (Canis lupus) populations across Europe from the Neolithic period to 20th century.

• Main Author: Preston, Francesca
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: C180 Ecology; C400 Genetics; C170 Population Biology; D300 Animal Science; Canis lupus
• Online Access: https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/49548/; https://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/id/eprint/49548/1/Presto%20Francesca%20-%20Life%20Sciences%20-%20November%202021%20%28003%29.pdf

Grey Wolves (Canis lupus) have been subject to extreme bottleneck’s since the last glacial maximum in response to evolutionary, ecological, and anthropogenic pressures. The consequences that are typically theorised to be exhibited from this is that the species will have reduced genetic diversity across the European populations, due to extreme fragmentation. This study will reconstruct the genetic composition of ancient and modern samples using a comparative investigation as well as DNA extraction. Sanger sequencing of mitochondrial DNA will provide the genetic diversity of the modern and ancient samples collected in this study. Three primer pairs consisting of 5 primers, L15 & HW1, LW1 & HW2, H16 & LW1 where used to analyse mitochondrial DNA. The dataset was aligned and manipulated using MEGA. The results showed the modern populations have exhibited a loss in genetic diversity in comparison to the ancient DNA. By using neighbour joining trees and median joining networks we can determine that there is a genetic distinction between western and southern central populations. This suggests a lack of gene glow amongst the populations and agrees with the theory of Italy being a refugia during the last glacial maximum in which the species migrated out from.