Projecting introgression from domestic cats into European wildcats in the Swiss Jura.

ABSTRACT: Hybridization between wild and domesticated organisms is a worldwide conservation issue. In the Jura Mountains, threatened European wildcats (Felis silvestris) have been demographically spreading for approximately the last 50 years, but this recovery is coupled with hybridization with domestic cats (Felis catus). Here, we project the pattern of future introgression using different spatially explicit scenarios to model the interactions between the two species, including competition and different population sizes. We project the fast introgression of domestic cat genes into the wildcat population under all scenarios if hybridization is not severely restricted. If the current hybridization rate and population sizes remain unchanged, we expect the loss of genetic distinctiveness

SUBMITTER: Quilodran CS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7463310 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature