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

Genomes of the extinct Sicilian wolf reveal a complex history of isolation and admixture with ancient dogs

Marta Maria Ciucani, Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal, Germán Hernández-Alonso, Alberto Carmagnini, Sabhrina Gita Aninta, Camilla Hjorth Scharff-Olsen, Liam Thomas Lanigan, Ilaria Fracasso, Cecilie G. Clausen, Jouni Aspi, Ilpo Kojola, Laima Baltrūnaitė, Linas Balčiauskas, Jane Moore, Mikael Åkesson, Urmas Saarma, Maris Hindrikson, Pavel Hulva, Barbora Černá Bolfíková, Carsten Nowak, Raquel Godinho, Steve Smith, Ladislav Paule, Sabina Nowak, Robert W. Mysłajek, Sabrina Lo Brutto, Paolo Ciucci, Luigi Boitani, Cristiano Vernesi, Hans K. Stenøien, Oliver Smith, Laurent Frantz, Lorenzo Rossi, Francesco Maria Angelici, Elisabetta Cilli, Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Shyam Gopalakrishnan
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.477289
Marta Maria Ciucani
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ciucani@palaeome.org shyam.gopalakrishnan@sund.ku.dk
Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Germán Hernández-Alonso
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Alberto Carmagnini
3School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sabhrina Gita Aninta
3School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Camilla Hjorth Scharff-Olsen
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Liam Thomas Lanigan
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ilaria Fracasso
4Forest Ecology Unit, Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige (TN), Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Cecilie G. Clausen
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jouni Aspi
5Ecology and Genetics Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ilpo Kojola
6Natural Resources Institute Finland, Rovaniemi, Finland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Laima Baltrūnaitė
7Nature Research Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Linas Balčiauskas
7Nature Research Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jane Moore
8Società Amatori Cirneco dell’Etna, Modica (RG) Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Mikael Åkesson
9Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Grimsö Wildlife Research Station, Department of Ecology, Riddarhyttan, Sweden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Urmas Saarma
10Department of Zoology, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Maris Hindrikson
10Department of Zoology, Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Pavel Hulva
11Charles University, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, Prague 2, Czech Republic
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Barbora Černá Bolfíková
12Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Carsten Nowak
13Center for Wildlife Genetics, Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt, Gelnhausen, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Raquel Godinho
14CIBIO/InBIO, University of Porto, Vairão, Portugal
15BIOPOLIS Program in Genomics, Biodiversity and Land Planning, CIBIO, Vairão, Portugal
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Steve Smith
16Konrad Lorenz Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Ladislav Paule
17Faculty of Forestry, Technical University, Zvolen, Slovakia
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sabina Nowak
18Department of Ecology, Institute of Functional Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Warszawa, Poland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Robert W. Mysłajek
18Department of Ecology, Institute of Functional Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, Biological and Chemical Research Centre, Warszawa, Poland
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Sabrina Lo Brutto
19Department of Biological, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technology (STEBICEF), University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
20Museum of Zoology “P. Doderlein”, SIMUA, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Paolo Ciucci
21Università di Roma La Sapienza, Dept. Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”, Roma, Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Luigi Boitani
21Università di Roma La Sapienza, Dept. Biology and Biotechnologies “Charles Darwin”, Roma, Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Cristiano Vernesi
4Forest Ecology Unit, Research and Innovation Centre, Fondazione Edmund Mach, San Michele all’Adige (TN), Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Hans K. Stenøien
22NTNU University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Oliver Smith
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Laurent Frantz
3School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK
23Palaeogenomics Group, Department of Veterinary Sciences, Ludwig Maximilian University, Munich, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Lorenzo Rossi
24Museo dell’Ecologia di Cesena, Cesena, Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Francesco Maria Angelici
25FIZV, Via Marco Aurelio 2, Roma, Italy
26National Center for Wildlife, Al Imam Faisal Ibn Turki Ibn Abdullah, Ulaishah, Saudi Arabia
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Elisabetta Cilli
27Laboratory of Ancient DNA, Department of Cultural Heritage (DBC), University of Bologna, Italy
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
28Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
M. Thomas P. Gilbert
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
29University Museum, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Shyam Gopalakrishnan
1Section for Evolutionary Genomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
2Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics, The GLOBE Institute, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
30Bioinformatics, Department of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ciucani@palaeome.org shyam.gopalakrishnan@sund.ku.dk
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Supplementary material
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Summary

The Sicilian wolf represented the only population of wolves living on a Mediterranean island until the first half of the twentieth century (1930s-1960s) 1–7. Previous studies hypothesised that they remained isolated from mainland wolves from the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) 8,9, until human persecutions led them to extinction 1–7.

There are only seven known Sicilian wolf specimens from the 19th and 20th century preserved in museums in Italy and recent morphometric analyses assigned them to the new subspecies Canis lupus cristaldii 10. To better understand the origins of the Sicilian wolf, and its relationship to other wolf populations, we sequenced four whole genomes (3.8×-11.6×) and five mitogenomes. We investigated the relationship between Sicilian wolves and other modern breeds to identify potential admixture. Furthermore, considering that the last land-bridge between Sicily and Italy disappeared after the LGM 11, around 17 kya, we explored the possibility that the Sicilian wolf retained ancestry from ancient wolf and dog lineages. Additionally, we explored whether the long-term isolation might have affected the genomic diversity, inbreeding levels and genetic load of the Sicilian wolf.

Our findings show that the Sicilian wolves shared most ancestry with the modern Italian wolf population but are better modelled as admixed with European dog breeds, and shared traces of Eneolithic and Bronze age European dogs. We also find signatures of severe inbreeding and low genomic diversity at population and individual levels due to long-term isolation and drift, suggesting also low effective population size.

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 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted January 21, 2022.
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.
Genomes of the extinct Sicilian wolf reveal a complex history of isolation and admixture with ancient dogs
(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
Genomes of the extinct Sicilian wolf reveal a complex history of isolation and admixture with ancient dogs
Marta Maria Ciucani, Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal, Germán Hernández-Alonso, Alberto Carmagnini, Sabhrina Gita Aninta, Camilla Hjorth Scharff-Olsen, Liam Thomas Lanigan, Ilaria Fracasso, Cecilie G. Clausen, Jouni Aspi, Ilpo Kojola, Laima Baltrūnaitė, Linas Balčiauskas, Jane Moore, Mikael Åkesson, Urmas Saarma, Maris Hindrikson, Pavel Hulva, Barbora Černá Bolfíková, Carsten Nowak, Raquel Godinho, Steve Smith, Ladislav Paule, Sabina Nowak, Robert W. Mysłajek, Sabrina Lo Brutto, Paolo Ciucci, Luigi Boitani, Cristiano Vernesi, Hans K. Stenøien, Oliver Smith, Laurent Frantz, Lorenzo Rossi, Francesco Maria Angelici, Elisabetta Cilli, Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Shyam Gopalakrishnan
bioRxiv 2022.01.21.477289; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.477289
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Genomes of the extinct Sicilian wolf reveal a complex history of isolation and admixture with ancient dogs
Marta Maria Ciucani, Jazmín Ramos-Madrigal, Germán Hernández-Alonso, Alberto Carmagnini, Sabhrina Gita Aninta, Camilla Hjorth Scharff-Olsen, Liam Thomas Lanigan, Ilaria Fracasso, Cecilie G. Clausen, Jouni Aspi, Ilpo Kojola, Laima Baltrūnaitė, Linas Balčiauskas, Jane Moore, Mikael Åkesson, Urmas Saarma, Maris Hindrikson, Pavel Hulva, Barbora Černá Bolfíková, Carsten Nowak, Raquel Godinho, Steve Smith, Ladislav Paule, Sabina Nowak, Robert W. Mysłajek, Sabrina Lo Brutto, Paolo Ciucci, Luigi Boitani, Cristiano Vernesi, Hans K. Stenøien, Oliver Smith, Laurent Frantz, Lorenzo Rossi, Francesco Maria Angelici, Elisabetta Cilli, Mikkel-Holger S. Sinding, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Shyam Gopalakrishnan
bioRxiv 2022.01.21.477289; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.01.21.477289

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

  • Genomics
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (3586)
  • Biochemistry (7545)
  • Bioengineering (5495)
  • Bioinformatics (20732)
  • Biophysics (10294)
  • Cancer Biology (7951)
  • Cell Biology (11611)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (6586)
  • Ecology (10168)
  • Epidemiology (2065)
  • Evolutionary Biology (13580)
  • Genetics (9521)
  • Genomics (12817)
  • Immunology (7906)
  • Microbiology (19503)
  • Molecular Biology (7641)
  • Neuroscience (41982)
  • Paleontology (307)
  • Pathology (1254)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2192)
  • Physiology (3259)
  • Plant Biology (7025)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1294)
  • Synthetic Biology (1947)
  • Systems Biology (5419)
  • Zoology (1113)