High-coverage short read sequencing of marsh fritillary butterflies for inbreeding studies

We made use of the power provided by genomic data to clarify the current state of the Danish marsh fritillary populations and determine to which extent the perceived population declines have led to inbreeding. After identifying populations with low genetic diversity and high inbreeding, we proceeded to apply the framework of Frankham et al. (2011) to predict the probability of outbreeding depression if genetic rescue was to be undertaken by translocation of individuals between Danish populations. We estimated contemporary population structure and differentiation, inferred past and recent population demographic history and subsequently modelled the circumstances surrounding population divergence, including divergence time, migration rates and effective population size (Ne). Finally, we searched for footprints of positive selection with specific focus on identifying patterns of divergent selection occurring between the four main geographical regions.