TY - JOUR

T1 - African bushpigs exhibit porous species boundaries and appeared in Madagascar concurrently with human arrival

AU - Balboa, Renzo F.

AU - Bertola, Laura D.

AU - Brüniche-Olsen, Anna

AU - Rasmussen, Malthe Sebro

AU - Liu, Xiaodong

AU - Besnard, Guillaume

AU - Salmona, Jordi

AU - Santander, Cindy G.

AU - He, Shixu

AU - Zinner, Dietmar

AU - Pedrono, Miguel

AU - Muwanika, Vincent

AU - Masembe, Charles

AU - Schubert, Mikkel

AU - Kuja, Josiah

AU - Quinn, Liam

AU - Garcia-Erill, Genís

AU - Stæger, Frederik Filip

AU - Rakotoarivony, Rianja

AU - Henrique, Margarida

AU - Lin, Long

AU - Wang, Xi

AU - Heaton, Michael P.

AU - Smith, Timothy P.L.

AU - Hanghøj, Kristian

AU - Sinding, Mikkel Holger S.

AU - Atickem, Anagaw

AU - Chikhi, Lounès

AU - Roos, Christian

AU - Gaubert, Philippe

AU - Siegismund, Hans R.

AU - Moltke, Ida

AU - Albrechtsen, Anders

AU - Heller, Rasmus

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024, The Author(s).

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Several African mammals exhibit a phylogeographic pattern where closely related taxa are split between West/Central and East/Southern Africa, but their evolutionary relationships and histories remain controversial. Bushpigs (Potamochoerus larvatus) and red river hogs (P. porcus) are recognised as separate species due to morphological distinctions, a perceived lack of interbreeding at contact, and putatively old divergence times, but historically, they were considered conspecific. Moreover, the presence of Malagasy bushpigs as the sole large terrestrial mammal shared with the African mainland raises intriguing questions about its origin and arrival in Madagascar. Analyses of 67 whole genomes revealed a genetic continuum between the two species, with putative signatures of historical gene flow, variable F ST values, and a recent divergence time (<500,000 years). Thus, our study challenges key arguments for splitting Potamochoerus into two species and suggests their speciation might be incomplete. Our findings also indicate that Malagasy bushpigs diverged from southern African populations and underwent a limited bottleneck 1000-5000 years ago, concurrent with human arrival in Madagascar. These results shed light on the evolutionary history of an iconic and widespread African mammal and provide insight into the longstanding biogeographic puzzle surrounding the bushpig’s presence in Madagascar.

AB - Several African mammals exhibit a phylogeographic pattern where closely related taxa are split between West/Central and East/Southern Africa, but their evolutionary relationships and histories remain controversial. Bushpigs (Potamochoerus larvatus) and red river hogs (P. porcus) are recognised as separate species due to morphological distinctions, a perceived lack of interbreeding at contact, and putatively old divergence times, but historically, they were considered conspecific. Moreover, the presence of Malagasy bushpigs as the sole large terrestrial mammal shared with the African mainland raises intriguing questions about its origin and arrival in Madagascar. Analyses of 67 whole genomes revealed a genetic continuum between the two species, with putative signatures of historical gene flow, variable F ST values, and a recent divergence time (<500,000 years). Thus, our study challenges key arguments for splitting Potamochoerus into two species and suggests their speciation might be incomplete. Our findings also indicate that Malagasy bushpigs diverged from southern African populations and underwent a limited bottleneck 1000-5000 years ago, concurrent with human arrival in Madagascar. These results shed light on the evolutionary history of an iconic and widespread African mammal and provide insight into the longstanding biogeographic puzzle surrounding the bushpig’s presence in Madagascar.

U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-44105-1

DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-44105-1

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38172616

AN - SCOPUS:85181229754

VL - 15

JO - Nature Communications

JF - Nature Communications

SN - 2041-1723

IS - 1

M1 - 172

ER -