Ruiz-García Manuel, Vega Javier, Pinedo-Castro Myreya, Shostell Joseph Mark
Laboratorio de Genética de Poblaciones Molecular-Biología Evolutiva, Unidad de Genética, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá 110311, Colombia.
Department of Math, Science and Technology, University of Minnesota Crookston, Crookston, MN 56716, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2025 Jun 26;15(13):1891. doi: 10.3390/ani15131891.
The systematics and phylogeny of the most speciose genus () of the felidae have historically been contentious and problematic. These issues have been compounded with the recent advancement of genetic techniques that make it possible to detect events such as incomplete lineage sorting (ILS), punctual historical ancestral introgression (PHAI), and repetitive introgression or recent hybridization (RI-RH). Each of these events have noteworthily affected the genus. One taxon (, herein called tigrina) has been especially complex from a phylogenetic point of view. In the last decade, one new species has been reported () and two other new species likely exist within the tigrinas ( and ). However, the most surprising find was the discovery of a new and not previously reported tigrina, the Nariño cat, from the southern Andean region of Colombia (2023). Later that same year, a new paper criticized the discovery. In response to that criticism, herein, we provide new molecular genetics results of the Nariño cat as well as new insights into the molecular phylogeny of the tigrinas inside the genus: (1) In this new work, we analyzed the mt gene of Nariño cat samples collected over four years (2001, 2007, 2017, 2023) as well as analyzed mitogenomes of Nariño cat samples collected in three different years (2001, 2017, 2023). The temporal Nariño cat samples (2001, 2007, 2017, 2023) refer to samples taken from a single specimen across different years. Based on these analyses, data from 2001 and 2007 represent the most reliable information. In contrast, samples from 2017 and 2023 may be contaminated with DNA from the Pampas cat and tigrina, respectively. (2) On the other hand, based on sequencing the mt gene of 164 specimens of , northern Andean and Central American tigrinas (37 specimens) are divided into at least six different groups (without counting the Nariño cat). Based on our analysis of sequenced mitogenomes of 102 specimens (including 34 northern Andean and Central American tigrinas) of the genus, there are at least eight different groups of tigrinas (without counting the Nariño cat). Henceforth, there are strong datasets which support the existence of multiple lineages within the presumed "a priori" northern Andean tigrina and thus much of the genetic diversity of this wild cat has gone unnoticed. There are a series of potential taxa that have gone unnoticed due to a lack of sampling of this polyphyletic Andean feline.
猫科动物中种类最多的属（）的系统分类和系统发育在历史上一直存在争议且问题重重。随着基因技术的最新进展，这些问题变得更加复杂，因为基因技术能够检测到诸如不完全谱系分选（ILS）、点状历史祖先基因渗入（PHAI）以及重复性基因渗入或近期杂交（RI-RH）等事件。这些事件中的每一个都对该属产生了显著影响。从系统发育的角度来看，一个分类单元（，本文称为tigrina）尤其复杂。在过去十年中，已经报道了一个新物种（），并且在tigrina中可能还存在另外两个新物种（和）。然而，最令人惊讶的发现是在哥伦比亚安第斯山脉南部地区发现了一种新的、此前未报道过的tigrina，即纳里尼奥猫（2023年）。同年晚些时候，一篇新论文对这一发现提出了批评。针对该批评，在此我们提供了纳里尼奥猫的新分子遗传学结果以及对该属内tigrina分子系统发育的新见解：（1）在这项新研究中，我们分析了在四年（2001年、2007年、2017年、2023年）期间收集的纳里尼奥猫样本的线粒体基因，以及分析了在三个不同年份（2001年、2017年、2023年）收集的纳里尼奥猫样本的线粒体基因组。纳里尼奥猫的时间样本（2001年、2007年、2017年、2023年）指的是从同一标本在不同年份采集的样本。基于这些分析，2001年和2007年的数据代表了最可靠的信息。相比之下，2017年和2023年的样本可能分别被潘帕斯猫和tigrina的DNA污染。（2）另一方面，基于对164个标本的线粒体基因进行测序，安第斯山脉北部和中美洲的tigrina（37个标本）至少被分为六个不同的组（不包括纳里尼奥猫）。基于我们对该属102个标本（包括34个安第斯山脉北部和中美洲的tigrina）的测序线粒体基因组的分析，tigrina至少有八个不同的组（不包括纳里尼奥猫）。从今往后，有强有力的数据集支持在假定的“先验”安第斯山脉北部tigrina中存在多个谱系，因此这种野猫的许多遗传多样性一直未被注意到。由于对这种多系安第斯猫科动物缺乏采样，有一系列潜在的分类单元未被发现。
