Y-chromosome evidence supports widespread signatures of three-species Canis hybridization in eastern North America.

ABSTRACT: There has been considerable discussion on the origin of the red wolf and eastern wolf and their evolution independent of the gray wolf. We analyzed mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and a Y-chromosome intron sequence in combination with Y-chromosome microsatellites from wolves and coyotes within the range of extensive wolf-coyote hybridization, that is, eastern North America. The detection of divergent Y-chromosome haplotypes in the historic range of the eastern wolf is concordant with earlier mtDNA findings, and the absence of these haplotypes in western coyotes supports the existence of the North American evolved eastern wolf (Canis lycaon). Having haplotypes observed exclusively in eastern North America as a result of insufficient sampling in the historic range of the coyote or that these linea

SUBMITTER: Wilson PJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3488682 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature