AUTHOR=Valdez Lourdes , D’Elía Guillermo 

TITLE=Genetic Diversity and Demographic History of the Shaggy Soft-Haired Mouse Abrothrix hirta (Cricetidae; Abrotrichini)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Genetics

VOLUME=12

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/genetics/articles/10.3389/fgene.2021.642504

DOI=10.3389/fgene.2021.642504

ISSN=1664-8021

ABSTRACT=<p>Genetic information on species can inform decision making regarding conservation of biodiversity since the response of organisms to changing environments depend, in part, on their genetic makeup. Territories of central-southern Chile and Argentina have undergone a varying degree of impact during the Quaternary, where the response of local fauna and flora was rather species-specific. Here, we focus on the sigmodontine rodent <italic>Abrothrix hirta</italic>, distributed from 35° S in Chile and Argentina to northern Tierra del Fuego. Based on 119,226 transcriptome-derived SNP loci from 46 individuals of <italic>A. hirta</italic>, we described the geographic distribution of the genetic diversity of this species using a maximum likelihood tree, principal component and admixture analyses. We also addressed the demographic history of the main intraspecific lineages of <italic>A. hirta</italic> using GADMA. We found that <italic>A. hirta</italic> exhibited four allopatric intraspecific lineages. Three main genetic groups were identified by a Principal Component Analysis and by Ancestry analysis. The demographic history of <italic>A. hirta</italic> was characterized by recent population stability for populations at the northernmost part of the range, while southern populations experienced a recent population expansion.</p>