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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology
Colonization of Ireland: Revisiting the pygmy shrew syndrome using mitochondrial, y chromosomal and microsatellite markers
Heredity, Volume 107, No. 6, Year 2011
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Description
There is great uncertainty about how Ireland attained its current fauna and flora. Long-distance human-mediated colonization from southwestern Europe has been seen as a possible way that Ireland obtained many of its species; however, Britain has (surprisingly) been neglected as a source area for Ireland. The pygmy shrew has long been considered an illustrative model species, such that the uncertainty of the Irish colonization process has been dubbed the pygmy shrew syndrome. Here, we used new genetic data consisting of 218 cytochrome (cyt) b sequences, 153 control region sequences, 17 Y-intron sequences and 335 microsatellite multilocus genotypes to distinguish between four possible hypotheses for the colonization of the British Isles, formulated in the context of previously published data. Cyt b sequences from western Europe were basal to those found in Ireland, but also to those found in the periphery of Britain and several offshore islands. Although the central cyt b haplotype in Ireland was found in northern Spain, we argue that it most likely occurred in Britain also, from where the pygmy shrew colonized Ireland as a human introduction during the Holocene. Y-intron and microsatellite data are consistent with this hypothesis, and the biological traits and distributional data of pygmy shrews argue against long-distance colonization from Spain. The compact starburst of the Irish cyt b expansion and the low genetic diversity across all markers strongly suggests a recent colonization. This detailed molecular study of the pygmy shrew provides a new perspective on an old colonization question. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3242627/bin/hdy201141x1.tif
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https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3242627/bin/hdy201141x5.doc
Authors & Co-Authors
McDevitt, Allan D.
Ireland, Dublin
University College Dublin
Poland, Bialowieza
Mammal Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences
Vega, R.
United Kingdom, York
University of York
United States, Ithaca
Cornell University
Rambau, Ramugondo Victor
United Kingdom, York
University of York
South Africa, Stellenbosch
Stellenbosch University
Yannic, Glenn
Switzerland, Lausanne
Université de Lausanne Unil
Canada, Rimouski
Centre D'etudes Nordiques, Rimouski
Herman, Jeremy S.
United Kingdom, York
University of York
United Kingdom, Edinburgh
National Museums of Scotland
Hayden, Thomas J.
Ireland, Dublin
University College Dublin
Searle, Jeremy B.
United Kingdom, York
University of York
United States, Ithaca
Cornell University
Statistics
Citations: 7
Authors: 7
Affiliations: 8
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1038/hdy.2011.41
ISSN:
0018067X
Research Areas
Genetics And Genomics