Puma genomes from North and South America provide insights into the genomic consequences of inbreeding.

ABSTRACT: Pumas are the most widely distributed felid in the Western Hemisphere. Increasingly, however, human persecution and habitat loss are isolating puma populations. To explore the genomic consequences of this isolation, we assemble a draft puma genome and a geographically broad panel of resequenced individuals. We estimate that the lineage leading to present-day North American pumas diverged from South American lineages 300-100 thousand years ago. We find signatures of close inbreeding in geographically isolated North American populations, but also that tracts of homozygosity are rarely shared among these populations, suggesting that assisted gene flow would restore local genetic diversity. The genome of a Florida panther descended from translocated Central American individuals has long tracts

SUBMITTER: Saremi NF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6800433 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature