Mitogenomic analysis in European brown hare (Lepus europaeus) proposes genetic and functional differentiation between the distinct lineages

Abstract

European brown hare is a small game species spreading across Europe to Asia Minor, with important economic traits. Population genetics studies using mitochondrial DNA markers have revealed the existence of two major phylogeographic lineages, the European and the Anatolian. European lineage is further divided in the European type halpogroup and south-eastern European type halpogroup, while Anatolian consists only by the Anatolian/Middle Eastern type halpogroup. All three haplogroups show a discrete geographical distribution, with an overlapping zone forming in North-East Greece and Bulgaria, forming a contact zone. Despite the existence of a contact zone, European haplotype was never detected in Anatolia and vice versa, proposing the presence of genetic barriers responsible for this phenomenon. In this study, we analyzed the whole mitochondrial genomes of specimens originating from both lineages, aiming to detect the genetic and functional differentiation of the oxidative phosphorylation complexes that are encoded by mtDNA that could lead gradually to the reproductive isolation of the lineages.

Keywords:

• OXPHOS
• mtDNA
• genomics
• Lepus europaeus
• next generation sequencing

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Assistant Professor Grigorios Amoutzias for his contribution to bioinformatics analysis and his useful suggestions. Also, the authors would like to thank the hunting associations and the hare breeder Mr Tsoumanis for their help in collecting samples from Greece. We are indebted to Dr Sfendourakis for providing Lepus samples from Cyprus.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest

Additional information

Funding

Funding was received from Postgraduate Courses ‘‘Biotechnology—Quality Assessment in Nutrition and the Environment’’ and ‘‘Applications of Molecular Biology—Genetics—Diagnostic Biomarkers’’ of the Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece.