title: Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation and phylogeography of Neotropic pumas (Puma concolor).
abstract: Pumas occupy the largest latitudinal range of any New World terrestrial mammal. Human population growth and associated habitat reduction has reduced their North American range by nearly two-thirds, but the impact of human expansion in Central and South America on puma populations is not clear. We examined mitochondrial DNA diversity of pumas across the majority of their range, with a focus on Central and South America. Four mitochondrial gene regions (1140 base pairs) revealed 16 unique haplotypes differentiating pumas into three geographic groupings: North America, Central America and South America. These groups were highly differentiated as indicated by significant pairwise FST values. North American samples were genetically homogenous compared to Central and South American samples, and South American pumas were the most diverse and ancestral. These findings support an earlier hypothesis that North America was recolonized by founding pumas from Central and South America.
authors.affiliation: Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History , New York, NY , USA and.
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Caragiulo
authors.forename: Isabela
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dias-Freedman
authors.forename: J Alan
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Salisa
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rabinowitz
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Amato
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D058974:Phylogeography; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D046011:Puma / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial
keywords: Mitochondrial DNA; Puma concolor; nucleotide diversity; population genetics