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. 2018 Jan 27;8(4):2290-2304.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.3650. eCollection 2018 Feb.

Low rates of hybridization between European wildcats and domestic cats in a human-dominated landscape

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Low rates of hybridization between European wildcats and domestic cats in a human-dominated landscape

Katharina Steyer et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

Hybridization between wild species and their domestic congeners is considered a major threat for wildlife conservation. Genetic integrity of the European wildcat, for instance, is a concern as they are outnumbered by domestic cats by several orders of magnitude throughout its range. We genotyped 1,071 individual wildcat samples obtained from hair traps and roadkills collected across the highly fragmented forests of western Central Europe, in Germany and Luxembourg, to assess domestic cat introgression in wildcats in human-dominated landscapes. Analyses using a panel of 75 autosomal SNPs suggested a low hybridization rate, with 3.5% of wildcat individuals being categorized as F1, F2, or backcrosses to either parental taxon. We report that results based on a set of SNPs were more consistent than on a set of 14 microsatellite markers, showed higher accuracy to detect hybrids and their class in simulation analyses, and were less affected by underlying population structure. Our results strongly suggest that very high hybridization rates previously reported for Central Europe may be partly due to inadequate choice of markers and/or sampling design. Our study documents that an adequately selected SNP panel for hybrid detection may be used as an alternative to commonly applied microsatellite markers, including studies relying on noninvasively collected samples. In addition, our finding of overall low hybridization rates in Central European wildcats provides an example of successful wildlife coexistence in human-dominated, fragmented landscapes.

Keywords: Felis silvestris; SNPs; hair traps; microsatellites; mitochondrial DNA; roadkills.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Assignment of 1,071 individuals based on control region mtDNA (a) and microsatellite (b–f) data, using Structure (b, c) and NewHybrids (d, e, f) (for haplotype assignment to wildcat or domestic cat, see text). Individuals identified as belonging to the western or the central cluster by structure were analyzed together (d) and separately using NewHybrids (e and f). Wildcats are sorted from west to east; domestic cats and individuals belonging to the western and central groups are placed in the center
Figure 2
Figure 2
Assignment of 536 roadkill samples analyzed using NewHybrids based on microsatellite (a, b), SNP (c) or microsatellite and SNP data combined (d). Because microsatellite data indicated two wildcat clusters, these individuals were analyzed separately in the microsatellite‐based NewHybrids analysis (a and b). Individuals that were not clearly assigned to either of the two wildcat clusters as identified by Structure (n = 19, see text for details) were not analyzed using NewHybrids. Wildcats are sorted from west to east; domestic cats and individuals belonging to the western and central groups are placed centrally
Figure 3
Figure 3
Haplotype network based on data for 1,071 individuals. Small black circles represent haplotypes not found, white circles with a full line were found in the hair dataset, but not in the tissue dataset, and white circles with a dashed line were not observed in this study but obtained from GenBank. The majority of haplotypes are found across entire the study region (FS03/04/16/22/26/32/34/36/37), while a few haplotypes were found only in the western (FS05/07/40) or the central (FS06/23) cluster. Pie chart colors indicate proportion of membership to one of the five groups as determined by SNP‐based NewHybrids analysis, and size of the circles indicate the number of samples analyzed, see inset on top left
Figure 4
Figure 4
Individual membership values (q (i)) for wildcats and domestic cats with SNP and microsatellite genotypes generated using Hybridlab and analyzed using Structure (a) and NewHybrids (b). Displayed are also the Median and the q (i)‐values corresponding to simulated categories
Figure 5
Figure 5
Map of Germany (white) and Luxembourg (light gray) showing geographical locations for all samples and their assignment to wildcats, domestic cats, or their hybrids according to NewHybrids analysis based on SNP and (in case of unavailability of SNPs) microsatellite data (n wildcat = 801; n domestic cat = 195; n F1 = 11; n F2 = 2; n backcross to wildcat = 14; n backcross to domestic cat = 10)

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