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=Volume 12 - 2021

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=Genetic information on species can inform decision making regarding conservation of biodiversity since the response of organisms to changing environments depend, in part, of 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 were rather species-specific. Here we focus on the sigmodontine rodent Abrothrix hirta, distributed from 35° S in Chile and Argentina to northern Tierra del Fuego, to describe the geographic distribution of the genetic diversity of this species and its demographic history. A. hirta exhibited four allopatric intraspecific lineages. Three main genetic groups were identified by a Principal Component Analysis and by Ancestry analysis. The demographic history of A. hirta was characterized by recent population stability for populations at the northernmost part of the range, while southern populations experienced a recent population expansion.