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Population genetic structure of European wildcats inhabiting the area between the Dinaric Alps and the Scardo-Pindic mountains - PubMed

  • ️Fri Jan 01 2021

Population genetic structure of European wildcats inhabiting the area between the Dinaric Alps and the Scardo-Pindic mountains

Felicita Urzi et al. Sci Rep. 2021.

Abstract

Habitat fragmentation and loss have contributed significantly to the demographic decline of European wildcat populations and hybridization with domestic cats poses a threat to the loss of genetic purity of the species. In this study we used microsatellite markers to analyse genetic variation and structure of the wildcat populations from the area between the Dinaric Alps and the Scardo-Pindic mountains in Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and North Macedonia. We also investigated hybridisation between populations of wildcats and domestic cats in the area. One hundred and thirteen samples from free-leaving European wildcats and thirty-two samples from domestic cats were analysed. Allelic richness across populations ranged from 3.61 to 3.98. The observed Ho values ranged between 0.57 and 0.71. The global FST value for the four populations was 0.080 (95% CI 0.056-0.109) and differed significantly from zero (P < 0.001). The highest FST value was observed between the populations North Macedonia and Slovenia and the lowest between Slovenia and Croatia. We also found a signal for the existence of isolation by distance between populations. Our results showed that wildcats are divided in two genetic clusters largely consistent with a geographic division into a genetically diverse northern group (Slovenia, Croatia) and genetically eroded south-eastern group (Serbia, N. Macedonia). Hybridisation rate between wildcats and domestic cats varied between 13% and 52% across the regions.

© 2021. The Author(s).

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1

Genetic structure of European wildcat populations from Slovenia (SI), Croatia (HR), Serbia (SR), North Macedonia (MK) and domestic cats (DcHR)) (a) and only European wildcat populations (b) revealed by STRUCTURE) (see Table 4.) Each individual is represented by a line proportionally partitioned into colour segments corresponding to its membership in particular clusters. K is the number of clusters. Black lines separate the individuals from different populations (according to Table 4).

Figure 2
Figure 2

Genetic structure of European wildcats inhabiting the area between the Dinaric Alps and the Scardo-Pindic mountains based on spatial clustering of individuals according to the best model, dividing four populations into two clusters (K = 2; see also Fig. 1b).

Figure 3
Figure 3

A two-dimensional plot of the FCA performed using GENETIX. European wildcats from different populations are indicated by different colours. The first axis explained 47.8% (P = 0.010), and the second explained 31.2% (P = 0.072) of the variance.

Figure 4
Figure 4

Isolation by distance. Pairwise Edwards genetic distances between individuals (Dgen), plotted against the Euclidean geographical distances (Dgeo; km) for the same individuals. Local density of points plotted using a two-dimensional Kernel density.

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