A genetically isolated dingo population in western Victoria, Australia, reveals greater structuring of the Australian dingo

The Australian dingo is a relatively recent anthropogenic addition to the Australian fauna, which spread rapidly across the continent and has since widely interbred with modern dogs. Genetic studies of dingoes have given rise to speculation about their entry to the continent and subsequent biogeographic effects, but few studies of their contemporary population structure have been conducted. Here we investigated the dingo ancestry and population structure of free-living dogs in western Victoria and contrasted it with a wider southern Australian sample. We wished to determine whether their geographic isolation was mirrored in genetic isolation. To address this question, we analysed genetic data using Bayesian clustering and discriminant analysis of principal components, and summarised genetic diversity at the population and individual levels. Upon finding low genetic diversity in western Victoria, we tested for a recent genetic bottleneck. The broader southern Australia sample (n=1,138) c...