Data from: Genome-wide analyses suggest parallel selection for universal traits may eclipse local environmental selection in a highly mobile carnivore

Ecological and environmental heterogeneity can produce genetic
differentiation in highly mobile species. Accordingly, local adaptation
may be expected across comparatively short distances in the presence of
marked environmental gradients. Within the European continent, wolves
(Canis lupus) exhibit distinct north–south population differentiation. We
investigated more than 67-K single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci for
signatures of local adaptation in 59 unrelated wolves from four previously
identified population clusters (northcentral Europe n = 32, Carpathian
Mountains n = 7, Dinaric-Balkan n = 9, Ukrainian Steppe n = 11). Our
analyses combined identification of outlier loci with findings from
genome-wide association study of individual genomic profiles and 12
environmental variables. We identified 353 candidate SNP loci. We examined
the SNP position and neighboring megabase (1 Mb, one million bases)
regions in the dog (C. lupus familiaris) genome for genes potentially
under selection, including homologue genes in other vertebrates. These
regions included functional genes for, for example, temperature regulation
that may indicate local adaptation and genes controlling for functions
universally important for wolves, including olfaction, hearing, vision,
and cognitive functions. We also observed strong outliers not associated
with any of the investigated variables, which could suggest selective
pressures associated with other unmeasured environmental variables and/or
demographic factors. These patterns are further supported by the
examination of spatial distributions of the SNPs associated with
universally important traits, which typically show marked differences in
allele frequencies among population clusters. Accordingly, parallel
selection for features important to all wolves may eclipse local
environmental selection and implies long-term separation among population
clusters.