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Journal article
Limited historical admixture between European wildcats and domestic cats
Current biology, Vol.33(21), pp.4751-4760.e14
11/06/2023
PMID: 37935117
Web of Science ID: WOS:001110641800001
Abstract
Domestic cats were derived from the Near Eastern wildcat (Felis lybica), after which they dispersed with people into Europe. As they did so, it is possible that they interbred with the indigenous population of European wildcats (Felis silvestris). Gene flow between incoming domestic animals and closely related indigenous wild species has been previously demonstrated in other taxa, including pigs, sheep, goats, bees, chickens, and cattle. In the case of cats, a lack of nuclear, genome-wide data, particularly from Near Eastern wildcats, has made it difficult to either detect or quantify this possibility. To address these issues, we generated 75 ancient mitochondrial genomes, 14 ancient nuclear genomes, and 31 modern nuclear genomes from European and Near Eastern wildcats. Our results demonstrate that despite cohabitating for at least 2,000 years on the European mainland and in Britain, most modern domestic cats possessed less than 10% of their ancestry from European wildcats, and ancient European wildcats possessed little to no ancestry from domestic cats. The antiquity and strength of this reproductive isolation between introduced domestic cats and local wildcats was likely the result of behavioral and ecological differences. Intriguingly, this long-lasting reproductive isolation is currently being eroded in parts of the species' distribution as a result of anthropogenic activities.
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- Title
- Limited historical admixture between European wildcats and domestic cats
- Publication Details
- Current biology, Vol.33(21), pp.4751-4760.e14
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc.
- Number of pages
- 25
- Grant note
- IAC Ltd York Archaeological Trust DEB-1753760 / National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF) Moore Group Royal Irish Academy NE/K005243/1; NE/K003259/1; NE/S007067/1; NE/S00078X/1 / Natural Environment Research Council; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) 57552336 / Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst grant (DAAD); Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) CNRS; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) Arch-Tech Ltd 210119/Z/18/Z / Wellcome Trust ERC-2013-StG-337574-UNDEAD; ERC-2019-StG-853272-PALAEOFARM / European Research Council; European Research Council (ERC) George Burch Postdoctoral Fellowship University Paul Sabatier (AnimalFarm IRP) National Museums Scotland National Monuments Service (Ireland) Manx Museum NE/L002612/1 / CRDS Ltd National Museum of Ireland Sussex Archaeological Society Transport Infrastructure Ireland Natural Environment Research Council (NERC); UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)
- Copyright
- © 2023 The Authors.
- Identifiers
- WOS:001110641800001; 99380554897306600
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology; Archaeology Institute; College of Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities
- Language
- English