Ancient DNA Reveals Maternal Philopatry of the Northeast Eurasian Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) Population during the Holocene

8 pages, 2 figures, supplementary materials https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13111961.-- Data Availability Statement: The mitochondrial genome assembly of Holocene brown bear from Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island is available for download through the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)—OP270839. Accession numbers of previously published Ursus specimens that were implemented in this study are available in Table S2.

Significant palaeoecological and paleoclimatic changes that took place during Late Pleistocene—Early Holocene transition are considered important factors that led to megafauna extinctions. Unlike many other species, the brown bear (Ursus arctos) has survived this geological time. Despite the fact that several mitochondrial DNA clades of brown bears became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, this species is still widely distributed in Northeast Eurasia. Here, using the ancient DNA analysis of a brown bear individual that inhabited Northeast Asia in the Middle Holocene (3460 ± 40 years BP) and comparative phylogenetic analysis, we show a significant mitochondrial DNA similarity of the studied specimen with modern brown bears inhabiting Yakutia and Chukotka. In this study, we clearly demonstrate the maternal philopatry of the Northeastern Eurasian U. arctos population during the several thousand years of the Holocene

This research was funded by Russian Scientific Foundation (RSF), grant number 22-24-00282. F.S. was partly supported by the state task of the Federal Research Center of Biotechnology RAS. The research of G.B. was conducted within the framework of the governmental scientific assignment of the Diamond and Precious Metals Geology Institute, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences

Peer reviewed