ddRAD sequencing of Corsican wildcats

While being known by Corsican people since a very long time, the Corsican wildcat has never been really studied and meaningful information about its phylogenetic position is still lacking. In the present study, we reported for the first time about its genetic identity using wild and phenotypically homogenous specimen genotyped at genome-wide SNPs generated through ddRAD sequencing. We compared this genomic information to both Corsican and French Metropolitan domestic cats Felis silvestris catus, European wild cat F. s. silvestris and Sardinian wildcat F. s. lybica. Our premise was that if Corsican wildcat, as a phenotypic entity, also represent a peculiar and divergent genetic entity, then it deserves conservation measures and to be recognized as a conservation unit, and eventually a new sub-species.