Data from: Demographic history influences spatial patterns of genetic diversity in recently expanded coyote (Canis latrans) populations

Human-mediated range expansions have increased in recent decades and represent unique opportunities to evaluate genetic outcomes of establishing peripheral populations across broad expansion fronts. Over the past century, coyotes (Canis latrans) have undergone a pervasive range expansion and now inhabit every state in the continental United States. Coyote expansion into eastern North America was facilitated by anthropogenic landscape changes and followed two broad expansion fronts. The northern expansion extended through the Great Lakes region and southern Canada, where hybridization with remnant wolf populations was common. The southern and more recent expansion front occurred approximately 40 years later and across territory where gray wolves have been historically absent and remnant red wolves were extirpated in the 1970s. We conducted a genetic survey at 10 microsatellite loci of 482 coyotes originating from 11 eastern U.S. states to address how divergent demographic histories influence geographic patterns of genetic diversity. We found that population structure corresponded to a north-south divide, which is consistent with the two known expansion routes. Additionally, we observed extremely high genetic diversity, which is atypical of recently expanded populations and is likely the result of multiple complex demographic processes, in addition to hybridization with other Canis species. Finally, we considered the transition of allele frequencies across geographic space and suggest the mid-Atlantic states of North Carolina and Virginia as an emerging contact zone between these two distinct coyote expansion fronts.近数十年来，人类活动介导的物种分布扩张事件愈发频发，这为探究横跨广阔扩张前沿的边缘种群建立过程的遗传效应提供了独特研究契机。过去一个世纪以来，郊狼（*Canis latrans*）的分布范围实现了全域性扩张，如今已遍及美国大陆的所有州份。郊狼向北美东部的扩张得益于人类活动引发的景观改变，其扩张进程沿两条主要的扩张前沿展开：北线通过五大湖地区延伸至加拿大南部，在此区域内郊狼与残存狼种群的杂交事件较为普遍。南线扩张前沿的出现时间则晚了约40年，其途经区域历史上并无灰狼分布，且残存的红狼已于20世纪70年代在该区域局部灭绝。本研究对来自美国东部11个州的482只郊狼的10个微卫星（microsatellite）位点进行了遗传分型检测，以探究不同的种群历史动态如何影响遗传多样性的地理分布格局。研究发现，种群结构呈现显著的南北分异，这与已知的两条扩张路径相吻合。此外，我们观测到极高的遗传多样性——这与近期扩张种群的典型特征不符，其成因很可能除了与其他犬属（*Canis*）物种的杂交之外，还涉及多重复杂的种群历史动态过程。最后，我们通过分析等位基因频率的地理空间过渡模式，提出美国北卡罗来纳州与弗吉尼亚州所在的大西洋中部区域，是这两条独立郊狼扩张前沿之间正在形成的杂交接触带。