@article{afc92b76dc304b71ba9a4324afa316f4,
title = "Ancient reindeer mitogenomes reveal island-hopping colonisation of the Arctic archipelagos",
abstract = "Climate warming at the end of the last glacial period had profound effects on the distribution of cold-adapted species. As their range shifted towards northern latitudes, they were able to colonise previously glaciated areas, including remote Arctic islands. However, there is still uncertainty about the routes and timing of colonisation. At the end of the last ice age, reindeer/caribou (Rangifer tarandus) expanded to the Holarctic region and colonised the archipelagos of Svalbard and Franz Josef Land. Earlier studies have proposed two possible colonisation routes, either from the Eurasian mainland or from Canada via Greenland. Here, we used 174 ancient, historical and modern mitogenomes to reconstruct the phylogeny of reindeer across its whole range and to infer the colonisation route of the Arctic islands. Our data shows a close affinity among Svalbard, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya reindeer. We also found tentative evidence for positive selection in the mitochondrial gene ND4, which is possibly associated with increased heat production. Our results thus support a colonisation of the Eurasian Arctic archipelagos from the Eurasian mainland and provide some insights into the evolutionary history and adaptation of the species to its High Arctic habitat. ",
author = "Katharina Hold and Edana Lord and Brealey, {Jaelle C.} and {Le Moullec}, Mathilde and Bieker, {Vanessa C.} and Ellegaard, {Martin R.} and Rasmussen, {Jacob A.} and Kellner, {Fabian L.} and Katerina Guschanski and Glenn Yannic and R{\o}ed, {Knut H.} and Hansen, {Brage B.} and Love Dal{\'e}n and Martin, {Michael D.} and Nicolas Dussex",
note = "Funding Information: The research was funded by the Research Council of Norway (Grant 325589 to M.D.M., Grants 276080 and 343398 to B.B.H, and SFF-III 223257), the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund (Grants 14/137 and 15/105 to B.B.H.), the Swedish Research Council (Formas; Grant 2019-00275 to K.G.) and the Science for Life Laboratory National Sequencing Projects (Grant NP00039 to K.G.). The authors acknowledge support from the National Infrastructure for High Performance Computing and resources provided by Sigma2 as well as Data Storage in Norway (Project NN8013K) for computational work for the genome assembly. Computations and data handling were enabled by resources provided by the National Academic Infrastructure for Supercomputing in Sweden (NAISS). Sequencing was performed by the SNP&SEQ Technology Platform in Uppsala. The SNP&SEQ Technology Platform is part of the National Genomics Infrastructure Sweden and Science of Life Laboratory. The SNP&SEQ Platform is also supported by the Swedish Research Council and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The authors also acknowledge support by NRM mammal curator Daniela Kalthoff for access to the collections and for providing detailed collection records. We would like to thank B{\o}rge Ousland for collecting the reindeer samples from Franz Josef Land on his North Pole expedition {\textquoteleft}In Nansen{\textquoteright}s Footsteps{\textquoteright} and Olivier Gilg for his assistance in collecting reindeer samples from East Greenland. We are grateful to Marie-Jos{\'e}e Nadeau and Martin Seiler at the National Laboratory of Age Determination, NTNU. Funding Information: The research was funded by the Research Council of Norway (Grant 325589 to M.D.M., Grants 276080 and 343398 to B.B.H, and SFF-III 223257), the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund (Grants 14/137 and 15/105 to B.B.H.), the Swedish Research Council (Formas; Grant 2019-00275 to K.G.) and the Science for Life Laboratory National Sequencing Projects (Grant NP00039 to K.G.). The authors acknowledge support from the National Infrastructure for High Performance Computing and resources provided by Sigma2 as well as Data Storage in Norway (Project NN8013K) for computational work for the genome assembly. Computations and data handling were enabled by resources provided by the National Academic Infrastructure for Supercomputing in Sweden (NAISS). Sequencing was performed by the SNP&SEQ Technology Platform in Uppsala. The SNP&SEQ Technology Platform is part of the National Genomics Infrastructure Sweden and Science of Life Laboratory. The SNP&SEQ Platform is also supported by the Swedish Research Council and the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The authors also acknowledge support by NRM mammal curator Daniela Kalthoff for access to the collections and for providing detailed collection records. We would like to thank B{\o}rge Ousland for collecting the reindeer samples from Franz Josef Land on his North Pole expedition {\textquoteleft}In Nansen{\textquoteright}s Footsteps{\textquoteright} and Olivier Gilg for his assistance in collecting reindeer samples from East Greenland. We are grateful to Marie-Jos{\'e}e Nadeau and Martin Seiler at the National Laboratory of Age Determination, NTNU. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2024.",
year = "2024",
month = feb,
day = "20",
doi = "10.1038/s41598-024-54296-2",
language = "English",
volume = "14",
journal = "Scientific Reports",
issn = "2045-2322",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
}