TY - JOUR

T1 - Temporal dynamics of woolly mammoth genome erosion prior to extinction

AU - Dehasque, Marianne

AU - Morales, Hernán E.

AU - Díez-del-Molino, David

AU - Pečnerová, Patrícia

AU - Chacón-Duque, J. Camilo

AU - Kanellidou, Foteini

AU - Muller, Héloïse

AU - Plotnikov, Valerii

AU - Protopopov, Albert

AU - Tikhonov, Alexei

AU - Nikolskiy, Pavel

AU - Danilov, Gleb K.

AU - Giannì, Maddalena

AU - van der Sluis, Laura

AU - Higham, Tom

AU - Heintzman, Peter D.

AU - Oskolkov, Nikolay

AU - Gilbert, M. Thomas P.

AU - Götherström, Anders

AU - van der Valk, Tom

AU - Vartanyan, Sergey

AU - Dalén, Love

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s)

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - A number of species have recently recovered from near-extinction. Although these species have avoided the immediate extinction threat, their long-term viability remains precarious due to the potential genetic consequences of population declines, which are poorly understood on a timescale beyond a few generations. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) became isolated on Wrangel Island around 10,000 years ago and persisted for over 200 generations before becoming extinct around 4,000 years ago. To study the evolutionary processes leading up to the mammoths’ extinction, we analyzed 21 Siberian woolly mammoth genomes. Our results show that the population recovered quickly from a severe bottleneck and remained demographically stable during the ensuing six millennia. We find that mildly deleterious mutations gradually accumulated, whereas highly deleterious mutations were purged, suggesting ongoing inbreeding depression that lasted for hundreds of generations. The time-lag between demographic and genetic recovery has wide-ranging implications for conservation management of recently bottlenecked populations.

AB - A number of species have recently recovered from near-extinction. Although these species have avoided the immediate extinction threat, their long-term viability remains precarious due to the potential genetic consequences of population declines, which are poorly understood on a timescale beyond a few generations. Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) became isolated on Wrangel Island around 10,000 years ago and persisted for over 200 generations before becoming extinct around 4,000 years ago. To study the evolutionary processes leading up to the mammoths’ extinction, we analyzed 21 Siberian woolly mammoth genomes. Our results show that the population recovered quickly from a severe bottleneck and remained demographically stable during the ensuing six millennia. We find that mildly deleterious mutations gradually accumulated, whereas highly deleterious mutations were purged, suggesting ongoing inbreeding depression that lasted for hundreds of generations. The time-lag between demographic and genetic recovery has wide-ranging implications for conservation management of recently bottlenecked populations.

KW - ancient DNA

KW - bottleneck

KW - climate

KW - extinction

KW - inbreeding

KW - Mammuthus primigenius

KW - mutation load

KW - paleogenomics

KW - woolly mammoth

KW - Wrangel Island

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85197516018&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.033

DO - 10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.033

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38942016

AN - SCOPUS:85197516018

VL - 187

SP - 3531-3540.e13

JO - Cell

JF - Cell

SN - 0092-8674

IS - 14

ER -