Journal article icon

Journal article

Genomic variation in baboons from central Mozambique unveils complex evolutionary relationships with other Papio species

Abstract:
Background
Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique hosts a large population of baboons, numbering over 200 troops. Gorongosa baboons have been tentatively identified as part of Papio ursinus on the basis of previous limited morphological analysis and a handful of mitochondrial DNA sequences. However, a recent morphological and morphometric analysis of Gorongosa baboons pinpointed the occurrence of several traits intermediate between P. ursinus and P. cynocephalus, leaving open the possibility of past and/or ongoing gene flow in the baboon population of Gorongosa National Park. In order to investigate the evolutionary history of baboons in Gorongosa, we generated high and low coverage whole genome sequence data of Gorongosa baboons and compared it to available Papio genomes.
Results
We confirmed that P. ursinus is the species closest to Gorongosa baboons. However, the Gorongosa baboon genomes share more derived alleles with P. cynocephalus than P. ursinus does, but no recent gene flow between P. ursinus and P. cynocephalus was detected when available Papio genomes were analyzed. Our results, based on the analysis of autosomal, mitochondrial and Y chromosome data, suggest complex, possibly male-biased, gene flow between Gorongosa baboons and P. cynocephalus, hinting to direct or indirect contributions from baboons belonging to the “northern” Papio clade, and signal the presence of population structure within P. ursinus.
Conclusions
The analysis of genome data generated from baboon samples collected in central Mozambique highlighted a complex set of evolutionary relationships with other baboons. Our results provided new insights in the population dynamics that have shaped baboon diversity.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

Actions


Access Document


Files:
Publisher copy:
10.1186/s12862-022-01999-7

Authors


More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MPLS
Department:
Zoology
Role:
Author
More by this author
Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0003-0650-4448
More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
SSD
Department:
SAME
Sub department:
Social & Cultural Anthropology
Role:
Author


Publisher:
BioMed Central
Journal:
BMC Ecology and Evolution More from this journal
Volume:
22
Issue:
1
Article number:
44
Publication date:
2022-04-11
Acceptance date:
2022-03-28
DOI:
EISSN:
2730-7182


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
1267822
Local pid:
pubs:1267822
Deposit date:
2022-07-13

Terms of use



Views and Downloads






If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record

TO TOP