The extinct Sicilian wolf shows a complex history of isolation and admixture with ancient dogs

The Sicilian wolf remained isolated in Sicily from the end of the Pleistocene until its extermination in the 1930s–1960s. Given its long-term isolation on the island and distinctive morphology, the genetic origin of the Sicilian wolf remains debated. We sequenced four nuclear genomes and five mitoge...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:iScience
Main Authors: Ciucani, Marta Maria, Ramos-Madrigal, Jazmín, Hernández-Alonso, Germán, Carmagnini, Alberto, Aninta, Sabhrina Gita, Scharff-Olsen, Camilla Hjorth, Lanigan, Liam Thomas, Fracasso, Ilaria, Clausen, Cecilie G., Aspi, Jouni, Kojola, Ilpo, Baltrūnaitė, Laima, Balčiauskas, Linas, Moore, Jane, Åkesson, Mikael, Saarma, Urmas, Hindrikson, Maris, Hulva, Pavel, Bolfíková, Barbora Černá, Nowak, Carsten, Godinho, Raquel, Smith, Steve, Paule, Ladislav, Nowak, Sabina, Mysłajek, Robert W., Lo Brutto, Sabrina, Ciucci, Paolo, Boitani, Luigi, Vernesi, Cristiano, Stenøien, Hans K., Smith, Oliver, Frantz, Laurent, Rossi, Lorenzo, Angelici, Francesco Maria, Cilli, Elisabetta, Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S., Gilbert, M. Thomas P., Gopalakrishnan, Shyam
Other Authors: Lanigan, Liam Thoma, Balčiauskas, Lina, Saarma, Urma, Hindrikson, Mari
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cell Press 2023
Subjects:
Canis lupus
Sicilian wolf
historical DNA
island biodiversity
ancient dogs
hybridization
inbreeding
Settore BIO/05 - Zoologia
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10447/604122
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.107307
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Summary:The Sicilian wolf remained isolated in Sicily from the end of the Pleistocene until its extermination in the 1930s–1960s. Given its long-term isolation on the island and distinctive morphology, the genetic origin of the Sicilian wolf remains debated. We sequenced four nuclear genomes and five mitogenomes from the seven existing museum specimens to investigate the Sicilian wolf ancestry, relationships with extant and extinct wolves and dogs, and diversity. Our results show that the Sicilian wolf is most closely related to the Italian wolf but carries ancestry from a lineage related to European Eneolithic and Bronze Age dogs. The average nucleotide diversity of the Sicilian wolf was half of the Italian wolf, with 37–50% of its genome contained in runs of homozygosity. Overall, we show that, by the time it went extinct, the Sicilian wolf had high inbreeding and low-genetic diversity, consistent with a population in an insular environment.

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