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Ancient mitochondrial DNA and the genetic history of E urasian beaver ( C astor fiber ) in E urope
Author(s) -
Horn Susanne,
Prost Stefan,
Stiller Mathias,
Makowiecki Daniel,
Kuznetsova Tatiana,
Benecke Norbert,
Pucher Erich,
Hufthammer Anne K.,
Schouwenburg Charles,
Shapiro Beth,
Hofreiter Michael
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
molecular ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.619
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1365-294X
pISSN - 0962-1083
DOI - 10.1111/mec.12691
Subject(s) - beaver , biology , population bottleneck , range (aeronautics) , phylogeography , genetic diversity , population , demographic history , mitochondrial dna , evolutionary biology , ecology , zoology , demography , microsatellite , genetics , phylogenetics , gene , allele , materials science , composite material , sociology
After centuries of human hunting, the E urasian beaver C astor fiber had disappeared from most of its original range by the end of the 19th century. The surviving relict populations are characterized by both low genetic diversity and strong phylogeographical structure. However, it remains unclear whether these attributes are the result of a human‐induced, late Holocene bottleneck or already existed prior to this reduction in range. To investigate genetic diversity in E urasian beaver populations during the H olocene, we obtained mitochondrial control region DNA sequences from 48 ancient beaver samples and added 152 modern sequences from GenBank. Phylogeographical analyses of the data indicate a differentiation of European beaver populations into three mitochondrial clades. The two main clades occur in western and eastern Europe, respectively, with an early Holocene contact zone in eastern Europe near a present‐day contact zone. A divergent and previously unknown clade of beavers from the Danube Basin survived until at least 6000 years ago, but went extinct during the transition to modern times. Finally, we identify a recent decline in effective population size of E urasian beavers, with a stronger bottleneck signal in the western than in the eastern clade. Our results suggest that the low genetic diversity and the strong phylogeographical structure in recent beavers are artefacts of human hunting‐associated population reductions. While beaver populations have been growing rapidly since the late 19th century, genetic diversity within modern beaver populations remains considerably reduced compared to what was present prior to the period of human hunting and habitat reduction.