Genetic analyses of brown hare (Lepus europaeus) support limited migration and translocation of Greek populations.

Styliani Minoudi,Alexandros Triantafyllidis,Costas Triantaphyllidis,Theodore J Abatzopoulos,Ioannis Papapetridis,Evangelos Chatzinikos,Nikoleta Karaiskou,Mateusz Baca

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0206327

Styliani Minoudi, Alexandros Triantafyllidis + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206327

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Abstract

Numerous studies have shown that the phylogeography of many species, including European brown hare, has been affected by the climatic oscillations of the Pleistocene. During this period the Balkans acted as a major refugium offering habitable conditions for many species. However, few studies have focused on the specific role of the Greek peninsula in the phylogeographic history of species in this southernmost margin of Balkans. We, therefore analyzed a 528 bp fragment of the D-loop region of mitochondrial DNA in 154 wild brown hare individuals from unsampled areas from both mainland and island Greece and compared it to 310 available brown hare sequences (including 110 Greek samples). Newly identified haplotypes show characteristic distribution in specific Greek areas reinforcing the theory that Greece can be considered as a subrefuge within Balkans for a number of species, with several “refugia within refugia” spots, holding significant genetic diversity. No haplotypes from wild Greek individuals clustered with the Central and Western Europe group revealing a minimal contribution of this area to the colonization of central Europe. One hundred and ten reared brown hares were also analyzed to elucidate the impact of introductions on local populations. Most of these samples presented close genetic affinity with haplotypes from Central and Western Europe indicating that farms in Greece use breeders from those areas. Therefore, despite human translocation of individuals, the genetic structure of brown hare has mostly been influenced by paleoclimatic conditions and minimally by human actions.

Highlights

Pleistocene glaciation cycles have considerably influenced the current geographic distribution of many European temperate species
During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 26–19 ka, [1]), large parts of Europe presented inhospitable habitats and diverse species were limited to warmer regions of Europe [2, 3]; the southern peninsulas of Italy, Iberia and Balkans provided more habitable conditions and acted as major refugia for many
Such refugia have been identified in regions of Western Europe, Central Europe and the Carpathians [8, 12,13,14]

Summary

Introduction

Pleistocene glaciation cycles have considerably influenced the current geographic distribution of many European temperate species. The populations that survived in these isolated regions underwent limited gene exchanges resulting in independent evolution and genetic divergence. According to this theory, these separate refugia contributed significantly to the post-glacial recolonization of the rest of Europe [2, 7, 8]. More recent evidence proves that many species survived in unexpected latitudes in northern or cryptic refugia [3, 9,10,11] Such refugia have been identified in regions of Western Europe, Central Europe and the Carpathians [8, 12,13,14]. “Refugia within refugia” have been identified even within the three Mediterranean peninsulas for animal as well as plant species [15,16,17,18]

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Discussion

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