TY - JOUR T1 - Complex admixture preceded and followed the extinction of wisent in the wild JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/059527 SP - 059527 AU - Karolina Węcek AU - Stefanie Hartmann AU - Johanna L. A. Paijmans AU - Ulrike Taron AU - Georgios Xenikoudakis AU - James A. Cahill AU - Peter D. Heintzman AU - Beth Shapiro AU - Gennady Baryshnikov AU - Aleksei N. Bunevich AU - Jennifer J. Crees AU - Roland Dobosz AU - Ninna Manaserian AU - Henryk Okarma AU - Małgorzata Tokarska AU - Samuel T. Turvey AU - Jan M. Wójcik AU - Waldemar Żyła AU - Jacek M. Szymura AU - Michael Hofreiter AU - Axel Barlow Y1 - 2016/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/15/059527.abstract N2 - Retracing complex population processes that precede extreme bottlenecks may be impossible using data from living individuals. The wisent (Bison bonasus), Europe’s largest terrestrial mammal, exemplifies such a population history, having gone extinct in the wild but subsequently restored by captive breeding efforts. Using low coverage genomic data from modern and historical individuals, we investigate population processes occurring before and after this extinction. Analysis of aligned genomes supports the division of wisent into two previously recognised subspecies, but almost half of the genomic alignment contradicts this population history as a result of incomplete lineage sorting and admixture. Admixture between subspecies populations occurred prior to extinction and subsequently during the captive breeding program. Admixture with the Bos cattle lineage is also widespread but results from ancient events rather than recent hybridisation with domestics. Our study demonstrates the huge potential of historical genomes for both studying evolutionary histories and for guiding conservation strategies. ER -