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Natural selection shaped the rise and fall of passenger pigeon genomic diversity.

Published version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

Murray, Gemma GR 
Soares, André ER 
Novak, Ben J 
Schaefer, Nathan K 
Cahill, James A 

Abstract

The extinct passenger pigeon was once the most abundant bird in North America, and possibly the world. Although theory predicts that large populations will be more genetically diverse, passenger pigeon genetic diversity was surprisingly low. To investigate this disconnect, we analyzed 41 mitochondrial and 4 nuclear genomes from passenger pigeons and 2 genomes from band-tailed pigeons, which are passenger pigeons' closest living relatives. Passenger pigeons' large population size appears to have allowed for faster adaptive evolution and removal of harmful mutations, driving a huge loss in their neutral genetic diversity. These results demonstrate the effect that selection can have on a vertebrate genome and contradict results that suggested that population instability contributed to this species's surprisingly rapid extinction.

Description

Keywords

Animals, Cell Nucleus, Columbidae, Extinction, Biological, Genes, Mitochondrial, Genetic Variation, Genomics, Mutation, North America, Population Density, Selection, Genetic

Journal Title

Science

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0036-8075
1095-9203

Volume Title

358

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Rights

Publisher's own licence