Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Ecological specialisation and evolutionary reticulation in extant Hyaenidae

View ORCID ProfileM V Westbury, View ORCID ProfileDiana Le Duc, View ORCID ProfileDavid A. Duchêne, Arunkumar Krishnan, Stefan Prost, Sereina Rutschmann, Jose H. Grau, Love Dalen, Alexandra Weyrich, Karin Norén, Lars Werdelin, Fredrik Dalerum, Torsten Schöneberg, Michael Hofreiter
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.14.338871
M V Westbury
1University of Potsdam, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
2Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for M V Westbury
  • For correspondence: mvwestbury@gmail.com
Diana Le Duc
3Institute of Human Genetics, University Medical Center Leipzig, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
4Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, 04103, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Diana Le Duc
David A. Duchêne
2Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Øster Voldgade 5-7, Copenhagen, Denmark
5Research School of Biology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for David A. Duchêne
Arunkumar Krishnan
6National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20894, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Stefan Prost
7LOEWE-Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics, Senckenberg, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany
8South African National Biodiversity Institute, National Zoological Garden, Pretoria, 0184, South Africa
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sereina Rutschmann
1University of Potsdam, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jose H. Grau
1University of Potsdam, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
9amedes Genetics, amedes Medizinische Dienstleistungen, Berlin, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Love Dalen
10Centre for Palaeogenetics, Svante Arrhenius väg 20C, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden
11Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, 10405 Stockholm, Sweden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Alexandra Weyrich
12Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), 10315 Berlin, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Karin Norén
13Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Lars Werdelin
14Department of Palaeobiology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-10405 Stockholm, Sweden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Fredrik Dalerum
13Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, 106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
15Research Unit of Biodiversity (UO-CSIC-PA), Mieres Campus, University of Oviedo, 33600 Mieres, Asturias, Spain
16Mammal Research Institute, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, South Africa
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Torsten Schöneberg
17Rudolf Schönheimer Institute of Biochemistry, Molecular Biochemistry, Medical Faculty, Johannisallee 30, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Michael Hofreiter
1University of Potsdam, Institute of Biochemistry and Biology, Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25, Potsdam, 14476, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

During the Miocene, Hyaenidae was a highly diverse family of Carnivora that has since been severely reduced to four extant genera, each of which contains only a single species. These species include the bone-cracking spotted, striped, and brown hyenas, and the specialised insectivorous aardwolf. Previous genome studies have analysed the evolutionary histories of the spotted and brown hyenas, but little is known about the remaining two species. Moreover, the genomic underpinnings of scavenging and insectivory, defining traits of the extant species, remain elusive. To tackle these questions, we generated an aardwolf genome and analysed it together with those from the other three species. We provide new insights into the evolutionary relationships between the species, the genomic underpinnings of their scavenging and insectivorous lifestyles, and their respective genetic diversities and demographic histories. High levels of phylogenetic discordance within the family suggest gene flow between the aardwolf lineage and the ancestral brown/striped hyena lineage. Genes related to immunity and digestion in the bone-cracking hyenas and craniofacial development in the aardwolf showed the strongest signals of selection in their respective lineages, suggesting putative key adaptations to carrion or termite feeding. We also found a family-wide expansion in olfactory receptor genes suggesting that an acute sense of smell was a key early adaptation for the Hyaenidae family. Finally, we report very low levels of genetic diversity within the brown and striped hyenas despite no signs of inbreeding, which we putatively link to their similarly slow decline in Neover the last ∼2 million years. We found much higher levels of genetic diversity in both the spotted hyena and aardwolf and more stable population sizes through time. Taken together, these findings highlight how ecological specialisation can impact the evolutionary history, demographics, and adaptive genetic changes of a lineage.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted October 14, 2020.
Download PDF

Supplementary Material

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Ecological specialisation and evolutionary reticulation in extant Hyaenidae
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Ecological specialisation and evolutionary reticulation in extant Hyaenidae
M V Westbury, Diana Le Duc, David A. Duchêne, Arunkumar Krishnan, Stefan Prost, Sereina Rutschmann, Jose H. Grau, Love Dalen, Alexandra Weyrich, Karin Norén, Lars Werdelin, Fredrik Dalerum, Torsten Schöneberg, Michael Hofreiter
bioRxiv 2020.10.14.338871; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.14.338871
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Ecological specialisation and evolutionary reticulation in extant Hyaenidae
M V Westbury, Diana Le Duc, David A. Duchêne, Arunkumar Krishnan, Stefan Prost, Sereina Rutschmann, Jose H. Grau, Love Dalen, Alexandra Weyrich, Karin Norén, Lars Werdelin, Fredrik Dalerum, Torsten Schöneberg, Michael Hofreiter
bioRxiv 2020.10.14.338871; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.14.338871

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Evolutionary Biology
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3505)
  • Biochemistry (7348)
  • Bioengineering (5324)
  • Bioinformatics (20266)
  • Biophysics (10019)
  • Cancer Biology (7744)
  • Cell Biology (11305)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6437)
  • Ecology (9953)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13325)
  • Genetics (9361)
  • Genomics (12586)
  • Immunology (7702)
  • Microbiology (19024)
  • Molecular Biology (7443)
  • Neuroscience (41041)
  • Paleontology (300)
  • Pathology (1229)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2138)
  • Physiology (3161)
  • Plant Biology (6861)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1273)
  • Synthetic Biology (1896)
  • Systems Biology (5313)
  • Zoology (1089)