Population genomics of the muskox' resilience in the near absence of genetic variation

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Authors

Pecnerova, Patricia
Lord, Edana
Garcia-Erill, Genis
Hanghoj, Kristian
Rasmussen, Malthe Sebro
Meisner, Jonas
Liu, Xiaodong
Van der Valk, Tom
Santander, Cindy G.
Quinn, Liam

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley

Abstract

Genomic studies of species threatened by extinction are providing crucial information about evolutionary mechanisms and genetic consequences of population declines and bottlenecks. However, to understand how species avoid the extinction vortex, insights can be drawn by studying species that thrive despite past declines. Here, we studied the population genomics of the muskox (Ovibos moschatus), an Ice Age relict that was at the brink of extinction for thousands of years at the end of the Pleistocene yet appears to be thriving today. We analysed 108 whole genomes, including present-day individuals representing the current native range of both muskox subspecies, the white-faced and the barren-ground muskox (O. moschatus wardi and O. moschatus moschatus) and a ~21,000-year-old ancient individual from Siberia. We found that the muskox' demographic history was profoundly shaped by past climate changes and post-glacial re-colonizations. In particular, the white-faced muskox has the lowest genome-wide heterozygosity recorded in an ungulate. Yet, there is no evidence of inbreeding depression in native muskox populations. We hypothesize that this can be explained by the effect of long-term gradual population declines that allowed for purging of strongly deleterious mutations. This study provides insights into how species with a history of population bottlenecks, small population sizes and low genetic diversity survive against all odds.

Description

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : Raw sequence reads are deposited in the European Nucleotide Archive under study accession ID: PRJEB64293. Scripts used in the analyses are available at https://github.com/patriciapecnerova/muskox_popgenomics

Keywords

Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), Population genomics, Muskox, Inbreeding, Genetic load, Genetic diversity, Ancient DNA

Sustainable Development Goals

None

Citation

Pečnerová, P., Lord, E., Garcia-Grill, G.,Hanghøj, K., Rasmussen, M. S., Meisner, J., Liu, X., van derValk, T., Santander, C. G., Quinn, L., Lin, L., Liu, S., Carøe, C.,Dalerum, F., Götherström, A., Måsviken, J., Vartanyan, S.,Raundrup, K., Al-Chaer, A. ... Siegismund, H. R. (2024). Population genomics of the muskox' resilience in the nearabsence of genetic variation. Molecular Ecology, 33, e17205.https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17205.