Warthog Genomes Resolve an Evolutionary Conundrum and Reveal Introgression of Disease Resistance Genes.

ABSTRACT: African wild pigs have a contentious evolutionary and biogeographic history. Until recently, desert warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) and common warthog (P. africanus) were considered a single species. Molecular evidence surprisingly suggested they diverged at least 4.4 million years ago, and possibly outside of Africa. We sequenced the first whole-genomes of four desert warthogs and 35 common warthogs from throughout their range. We show that these two species diverged much later than previously estimated, 400,000-1,700,000 years ago depending on assumptions of gene flow. This brings it into agreement with the paleontological record. We found that the common warthog originated in western Africa and subsequently colonized eastern and southern Africa. During this range expansion, the commo

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Erill G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9250280 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature