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3 Using Genes and Genomes to Identify Species and Subspecies
Pages 29-40

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From page 29...
... Thus, the nucleus of each cell contains two copies of this haploid genome, one maternally derived and the other paternally derived. In addition to the nuclear DNA, the mitochondrial genome of a cell contains its own haploid genome of approximately 16,000 base pairs of DNA (mtDNA)
From page 30...
... (1997) compared allele frequencies at 20 microsatellite loci in Mexican gray wolves with those found in domestic dogs, northern gray wolves, and coyotes to determine whether the Mexican wolves had unique alleles (two of these loci are shown in Table 3-1)
From page 31...
... Researchers' ability today to sequence entire genomes allows them to detect genetic differences at many positions throughout the genome. There are some 2.5 billion base pairs in the wolf haploid genome.
From page 32...
... That is, all of the gray wolf haplotypes share a more recent common ancestor with each other than any of them do with the coyote haplotypes. Recently diverged species can be non-monophyletic, that is, there may be individuals in one population who share a more recent common ancestor with individuals in the other population than they do with some individuals in their own population.
From page 33...
... The authors conclude that all North American gray wolves, including the Mexican gray wolf, are monophyletic and thus share a common ancestor that is not shared with any other wolves. They also concluded that the red, Eastern timber, and Great Lakes wolves demonstrate admixture between modern gray wolves and coyotes.
From page 34...
... The gray wolf actually has 39 pairs of chromosomes that undergo this same process, but only one pair is shown for the sake of simplicity. the true species trees because of shared ancestral variation.
From page 35...
... For example, genetic drift resulting from a small population bottleneck can result in the individuals within a population being very similar to each other and very distinct from even closely related populations. One common type of analysis of genomic data is principal component analysis (PCA)
From page 36...
... Individuals 30205 and 30218 were determined to be first-generation coyote x red wolf hybrids based upon the known pedigree. Individuals 30145 and 30214 were determined to be firstgeneration hybrid x red wolf crosses using the pedigree.
From page 37...
... However, its reliability depends heavily on using the appropriate reference populations, and it may produce erroneous results if inappropriate reference populations are used. For example, one could analyze dog chromosomes as an admixture between a mouse and horse, FIGURE 3-6  Diagram of hypothetical ancestry painting of chromosomes.
From page 38...
... 2008. Interpreting principal component analyses of spatial population genetic variation.
From page 39...
... 1999. Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography and population history of the grey wolf Canis lupus.


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