20 | 2025 GIGA Annual Report Tom Druet from the Unit of Animal Genomcis participated to a study that explored the genetic history and composition of feral cattle on Amsterdam Island. The population, founded by just five animals that were abandoned on this remote and inhospitable island in the late 19th century, showed contributions from European taurine and Indian Ocean Zebu ancestry. The research revealed an intense but brief bottleneck during the population’s founding, followed by moderate genetic diversity reduction despite high inbreeding. This bottleneck resulted in high drift and slight relaxation of purifying selection on mildly deleterious variants, but no significant purging of harmful variants. The cattle’s success in the harsh environment was attributed to preadaptation from their European taurine ancestry, contradicting theories of insular dwarfism. The genome scan revealed selection footprints in genes related to nervous system function, indicating behavioral changes due to rapid feralization. The findings offer insights into population establishment, feralization, and genetic adaptation in challenging environments and raise ethical questions for conservation. GENOMIC RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SUCCESSFUL ESTABLISHMENT OF A FERALIZED BOVINE POPULATION ON THE SUBANTARCTIC ISLAND OF AMSTERDAM Gautier M, Micol T, Camus L, Moazami-Goudarzi K, Naves M, Guéret E, Engelen S, Lemainque A, Colas F, Flori L, Druet T. Mol Biol Evol. 2024 Jul 3;41(7):msae121. doi: 10.1093/molbev/msae121 p LINKS | Publication on ORBI | Tom Druet
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