College of Inter-Faculty Individual Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
Natural History Museum Vienna, 1010, Vienna, Austria.
Sci Rep. 2017 May 24;7(1):2331. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-02359-y.
We present ancient mitochondrial DNA analyses of 31 complete cytochrome b gene sequences from subfossil red deer remains from the Tyrrhenian islands (Corsica and Sardinia) and mainland Italy in a European-wide phylogeographic framework. Tyrrhenian and North African red deer, both going back to human introductions, were previously the only red deer to harbour the mitochondrial B lineage whose origin, however, remained unknown. Our ancient Italian samples from the central part of the peninsula that were radiocarbon-dated to an age of ca. 6300 to 15 600 cal BP all showed B haplotypes, closely related or even identical to those found on Sardinia. Genetic diversity in the mainland population was considerably higher than on the islands. Together with palaeontological evidence our genetic results identify the Italian Peninsula as the ultimate origin of the B lineage and thus the Tyrrhenian and North African red deer. This is in line with previous biogeographic findings that uncovered distinct intraspecific phylogeographic lineages in Italian mammals, underlining Italy's status as a hotspot of European mammalian diversity.
我们在一个广泛的欧洲系统地理学框架内，对来自撒丁岛和科西嘉岛（意大利）以及意大利大陆的 31 个完整细胞色素 b 基因序列的古代线粒体 DNA 进行了分析。先前，只有来自人类引入的撒丁岛和北非的红鹿拥有线粒体 B 谱系，但其起源仍不清楚。我们从半岛中部获得的、经放射性碳年代测定为大约 6300 到 15600 年前的意大利古代样本都显示出 B 单倍型，与撒丁岛上发现的 B 单倍型密切相关，甚至相同。与岛屿相比，大陆种群的遗传多样性要高得多。我们的遗传结果与古生物学证据一起确定了意大利半岛是 B 谱系的最终起源地，也是撒丁岛和北非红鹿的起源地。这与之前的生物地理学发现一致，该发现揭示了意大利哺乳动物中存在独特的种内系统地理学谱系，突出了意大利作为欧洲哺乳动物多样性热点的地位。
