Repeated hybridization of two closely related gazelle species (Gazella bennettii and Gazella subgutturosa) in central Iran

Abstract

Interspecific hybridization increasingly occurs in the course of anthropogenic actions, such as species translocations and introductions, and habitat modifications or occurs in sympatric species due to the shortage of conspecific mates. Compared with anthropogenically caused hybridization, natural hybridization is more difficult to prove, but both play an important role in conservation. In this study, we detected hybridization of two gazelle sister species, Gazella bennettii (adapted to dry areas) and Gazella subgutturosa (adapted to open plains), in five habitat areas, where G. bennettii naturally occur in central Iran. The hybrids have a nuclear genomic identity (based on two introns), habitat preference, and phenotype of G. bennettii , but the mitochondrial identity (based on cyt b ) of G. subgutturosa . We suggest that natural hybridization of female G. subgutturosa and male G. bennettii happened twice in central Iran in prehistoric times, based on the haplotype pattern that we found. However, we found indications of recent hybridization between both species under special circumstances, for example, in breeding centers, due to translocations, or in areas of sympatry due to the shortage of conspecific mates. Therefore, these two species must be kept separately in the breeding centers, and introduction of one of them into the habitat of the other must be strictly avoided.

Mitochondrial DNA analyses revealed distinct lineages in an alpine mammal, Siberian ibex (Capra sibirica) in Xinjiang, China

“…The phylogenetic anomalies among closely related bovine species were explained by ILS rather than hybridization, and the Southern lineage being sister to other Capra species seems to be due to ILS. However, given that the clustering pattern of the Northern lineage and C. falconeri in our mtDNA trees (Figures 2 and 3) was in line with the topology of the WGS and Y chromosome (Zheng et al, 2020), and the divergence time between lineages was much earlier (Table 3), we cannot exclude the possibility of hybridization or introgression between these two species, owing to their geographic proximity, as reported in other sympatric bovine species (Fadakar et al, 2020). Thus, population genomic studies with dense geographical sampling are needed to unveil this phenomenon, as sufficiently many unlinked genes/loci always return the correct topology (Mossel & Roch, 2010).…”

A highly divergent mitochondrial genome in extant Cape buffalo from Addo Elephant National Park, South Africa

“…Whatever the taxonomic status of the long-horned buffalo, it is evident that it is closely related to African buffalo, and specifically the Cape buffalo subspecies (Klein, 1994;Peters et al, 1994). Intra-and interspecific hybridisation and introgression have been well-documented in nature across many taxa (Taylor & Larson, 2019), including bovids (Fadakar et al, 2020;Grobler, van Wyk, Dalton, van Vuuren, & Kotze, 2018;Hassanin et al, 2012;Rakotoarivelo, O'Donoghue, Bruford, & Moodley, 2019;van Wyk et al, 2019), supporting the hypothesis that the source of the divergent mitogenome may be due to introgressive hybridisation between Cape and long-horned buffalo. There is no clear reason, to our knowledge, why this introgressive hybridisation process (if that is indeed what has occurred) should have been localised to the southern tip of Africa, as Cape and long-horned buffalo co-occurred in space and time across a much larger part of Africa (Faith, 2014).…”

Conservation Biology and Reproduction in a Time of Developmental Plasticity

“…Recent advances in functional genomics now offer interesting insights into the ways in which cryopreserved and stored spermatozoa need to be used with great care. Just as some wild mammal populations (for example, gazelles, manatees, and marsupial gliders) are capable of anthropogenically influenced interspecific hybridization, often leading to lowered fertility or even sterility [ 87 , 88 , 89 , 90 ], there is an ongoing risk of creating hybrids through the use of poorly organized and inadequately characterized collections of stored gametes. Although it is not yet technically feasible to cryopreserve, recover and use marsupial spermatozoa for artificial insemination, some scientists advocate keeping such frozen collections just in case it ever becomes feasible to undertake techniques such as intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) [ 91 ].…”