Abstract
Postglacial recolonization of much of Europe by wild boar was a complex process which is still not well recognized. Studying genetic diversity of the present populations can help us better understand their origins and recolonization routes from the southern refugia. In the recent study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, we studied variation in mitochondrial DNA of European wild boar populations. We identified five phylogenetic clades in Europe with clear phylogeographic pattern. Two of them occurred mainly in western and central part of the continent, while the range of the third clade covered North-Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Europe. The two other clades had geographically restricted distribution. In Central Europe, we identified a contact zone of three main mtDNA clades and this is where the highest genetic diversity was observed. During the post-glacial times, Central and Eastern Europe was probably recolonized by wild boar belonging to at least two western clades and one large, diverse clade from south-eastern Europe. However, the contribution of mtDNA lineages originating from the southeast (the Dinaric-Balkan region and the northern coast of the Black Sea) to the wild boar population in Central and Eastern Europe is larger than that of clades originating from western and south-western part of the continent (southern France, Iberian, and Italian Peninsulas). The present work was the first mitogenomic analysis conducted in Central and Eastern Europe to study genetic diversity and structure of wild boar.