A new mitochondrial haplotype confirms the distinctiveness of the Italian wolf (Canis lupus) population

摘要: In the past century Italian wolf has been repeatedly indicated as a distinct subspecies, Canis lupus italicus, due to its unique morphology and distinctive mtDNA control region (CR) monomorphism. However, recent studies on x dog hybridization in Italy documented presence of second CR haplotype (W16), previously found only wolves from Eastern Europe, casting doubts genetic uniqueness wolves. To test whether this belongs population, we genotyped 92 DNA samples Italy, Slovenia, Greece Bulgaria at four regions (control-region, ATP6, COIII ND4 genes) 39 autosomal microsatellites. Results confirm two multi-fragment haplotypes (WH14 WH19) wolves, all other European Network analyses identified strongly differentiated clades, with WH14 WH19 rooted together. Finally, Bayesian clustering clearly assigned sampled regardless different haplotypes. These results demonstrate that W16 is part pool reconfirming distinctiveness Overall, considering Y-linked haplotypes, sharply frequencies genome-wide alleles morphological features believe population should be considered subspecies.