British European polecat introgression.. British European polecat introgression

The European polecat (Mustela putorius) is a mammalian predator which breeds across much of Europe east to central Asia. In Great Britain, following years of persecution the European polecat has recently undergone a population increase due to legal protection and its range now overlaps that of feral domestic ferrets (Mustela putorius furo). During this range expansion, European polecats hybridised with feral domestic ferrets producing viable offspring. Here we carry out population-level whole genome sequencing on domestic ferrets, British European polecats, and European polecats from the European mainland and find high degrees of genome introgression in British polecats outside their previous stronghold, even in those individuals phenotyped as ‘pure’ polecats. We quantify this introgression and find introgressed genes under selection that may assist in sight or load-bearing.欧洲艾鼬（Mustela putorius）是一种哺乳纲食肉动物，其繁殖分布范围覆盖欧洲大部分区域，东抵中亚。在大不列颠地区，历经多年的人为捕杀迫害后，欧洲艾鼬因法律保护政策近期实现种群数量回升，其分布范围如今与野化家雪貂（Mustela putorius furo）的分布区域发生重叠。在此次分布范围扩张过程中，欧洲艾鼬与野化家雪貂发生杂交并产生可育后代。本研究对家雪貂、英国本土欧洲艾鼬以及欧洲大陆的欧洲艾鼬开展了种群级全基因组测序，结果发现，在英国欧洲艾鼬此前的核心分布区之外的个体中存在高水平的基因组渐渗现象，即便那些表型鉴定为‘纯’艾鼬的个体也未能例外。我们对该渐渗现象进行了量化分析，并鉴定出处于选择压力下的渐渗基因，这些基因或与视觉功能或负重能力相关。