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Temporal dynamics of woolly mammoth genome erosion prior to extinction

Dehasque, Marianne ; Morales, Hernán E. LU ; Díez-del-Molino, David ; Pečnerová, Patrícia ; Chacón-Duque, J. Camilo ; Kanellidou, Foteini ; Muller, Héloïse ; Plotnikov, Valerii ; Protopopov, Albert and Tikhonov, Alexei , et al. (2024) In Cell 187(14). p.13-3540
Abstract

A number of species have recently recovered from near-extinction. Although these species have avoided the immediate extinction threat, their long-term viability remains precarious due to the potential genetic consequences of population declines, which are poorly understood on a timescale beyond a few generations. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) became isolated on Wrangel Island around 10,000 years ago and persisted for over 200 generations before becoming extinct around 4,000 years ago. To study the evolutionary processes leading up to the mammoths’ extinction, we analyzed 21 Siberian woolly mammoth genomes. Our results show that the population recovered quickly from a severe bottleneck and remained demographically stable during... (More)

A number of species have recently recovered from near-extinction. Although these species have avoided the immediate extinction threat, their long-term viability remains precarious due to the potential genetic consequences of population declines, which are poorly understood on a timescale beyond a few generations. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) became isolated on Wrangel Island around 10,000 years ago and persisted for over 200 generations before becoming extinct around 4,000 years ago. To study the evolutionary processes leading up to the mammoths’ extinction, we analyzed 21 Siberian woolly mammoth genomes. Our results show that the population recovered quickly from a severe bottleneck and remained demographically stable during the ensuing six millennia. We find that mildly deleterious mutations gradually accumulated, whereas highly deleterious mutations were purged, suggesting ongoing inbreeding depression that lasted for hundreds of generations. The time-lag between demographic and genetic recovery has wide-ranging implications for conservation management of recently bottlenecked populations.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
ancient DNA, bottleneck, climate, extinction, inbreeding, Mammuthus primigenius, mutation load, paleogenomics, woolly mammoth, Wrangel Island
in
Cell
volume
187
issue
14
pages
13 - 3540
publisher
Cell Press
external identifiers
  • pmid:38942016
  • scopus:85197516018
ISSN
0092-8674
DOI
10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.033
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
fe3920da-9d0e-4d61-822f-6ee083b577f8
date added to LUP
2024-09-23 14:32:21
date last changed
2024-09-26 12:31:55
@article{fe3920da-9d0e-4d61-822f-6ee083b577f8,
  abstract     = {{<p>A number of species have recently recovered from near-extinction. Although these species have avoided the immediate extinction threat, their long-term viability remains precarious due to the potential genetic consequences of population declines, which are poorly understood on a timescale beyond a few generations. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) became isolated on Wrangel Island around 10,000 years ago and persisted for over 200 generations before becoming extinct around 4,000 years ago. To study the evolutionary processes leading up to the mammoths’ extinction, we analyzed 21 Siberian woolly mammoth genomes. Our results show that the population recovered quickly from a severe bottleneck and remained demographically stable during the ensuing six millennia. We find that mildly deleterious mutations gradually accumulated, whereas highly deleterious mutations were purged, suggesting ongoing inbreeding depression that lasted for hundreds of generations. The time-lag between demographic and genetic recovery has wide-ranging implications for conservation management of recently bottlenecked populations.</p>}},
  author       = {{Dehasque, Marianne and Morales, Hernán E. and Díez-del-Molino, David and Pečnerová, Patrícia and Chacón-Duque, J. Camilo and Kanellidou, Foteini and Muller, Héloïse and Plotnikov, Valerii and Protopopov, Albert and Tikhonov, Alexei and Nikolskiy, Pavel and Danilov, Gleb K. and Giannì, Maddalena and van der Sluis, Laura and Higham, Tom and Heintzman, Peter D. and Oskolkov, Nikolay and Gilbert, M. Thomas P. and Götherström, Anders and van der Valk, Tom and Vartanyan, Sergey and Dalén, Love}},
  issn         = {{0092-8674}},
  keywords     = {{ancient DNA; bottleneck; climate; extinction; inbreeding; Mammuthus primigenius; mutation load; paleogenomics; woolly mammoth; Wrangel Island}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{14}},
  pages        = {{13--3540}},
  publisher    = {{Cell Press}},
  series       = {{Cell}},
  title        = {{Temporal dynamics of woolly mammoth genome erosion prior to extinction}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.033}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.033}},
  volume       = {{187}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}