Population genetics and phylogeographic analyses of the jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) by means of three mitochondrial markers: The first molecular population study of this species

A total of 44 wild jaguarundis were sampled throughout Mexico, Guatemala, CostaRica, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil and sequenced for threemitochondrial genes (ATP8, 16S rRNA, NADH5). This is the first molecular populationgenetics and phylogenetic study of this species and the most relevant results were asfollows: 1- The gene diversity levels for the jaguarundi at the three mitochondrial genessequenced were very elevated as it was found for other Neotropical wild cats such as thejaguar, ocelot, margay and the Pampas cat; 2- The levels of gene heterogeneity amongputative subspecies or among countries was extremely small, although this species has abroad distribution from southern USA to Argentina; 3- Additionally, the phylogeneticstrees (genetic distances, maximum likelihood, maximum parsimony and Bayesian)showed that no molecular subspecies were defined in contradiction with themorphological classifications of Allen (1919), Cabrera (1957) and de Oliveira (1998); 4-Bayesian and network procedures showed that the first haplotype divergence process inthe jaguarundi began around 2.0-1.6 MYA, with a second haplotype divergence eventaround 1.1-0.8 MYA, followed by other haplotype splits around 0.75-0.5 MYA, 0.34-0.32 MYA, and 0.16-0.11 MYA as well as many haplotype divergence events in the last 30,000 YA. These haplotype process splits were correlated with climatic changes duringthe Pleistocene; 5- Some evidence of population expansion was determined for thejaguarundi around 400,000 YA, especially for the ATP8 marker, and a slightly higherpopulation declination was detected for the last 20,000 YA for ATP8 and 16S rRNA loci.