Phylogeographic analysis of Iranian wildcats (Felis lybica / Felis silvestris) as revealed by mitochondrial cytochrome b gene
2019
Mousavi, Marzieh | Rezaei, Hamid Reza | Naderi, Saeid
The wildcat (Felis lybica/Felis silvestris) is widely distributed in Africa and Eurasia. Iran is situated at the intersection of the distributions of the European Wildcat F. silvestris with the African Wildcat F. lybica. The genetic relationships of the Iranian wildcat population with either group remain unclear. We examined sequence variation of 1,140 bp of mitochondrial DNA cytochrome b gene from 23 wildcat samples collected across Iran. The analyses revealed two subclades, of which one is related to the Asian Wildcat (F. lybica ornata) and the other to the African Wildcat (F. lybica lybica) and the Domestic Cat (F. catus). Sixteen closely related haplotypes were identified for the entire country, with two geographically distinct subclades for western and eastern Zagros Mountain Range and overlapping in some localities. The analyses of fixation index (FST) and molecular variance (AMOVA) demonstrated significant genetic structuring among the two subclades(FST=0.63). Analysis of mismatch distribution and multimodal graph indicated that the Iranian wildcat population is in a condition of demographic equilibrium.
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