The Carpathian Mountains provide critical wildlife habitat in central Europe, and previous genome-wide studies have found western Carpathian Mountain wolves ( Canis lupus ) to be a separate population. Whereas differentiation to the north may be explained by a lowland-mountain transition and habitat fragmentation, the eastern Carpathian Mountains extending through Romania appear to offer continuous wildlife habitat southward. Our objective was to assess gene flow patterns and population connectivity among wolves in Romania, western Ukraine, and the Republic of Moldova. We sought to determine if the Carpathian Mountain region is best described by a north–south gradient in genetic profiles, or whether Romanian wolves show population structure with northern individuals clustering with western Ukraine. We genotyped 48 individuals with 170 000 single nucleotide polymorphism markers, and successful profiles from Romania (n = 27) and Moldova (n = 2) were merged with existing data from western Ukraine (n = 10). Expected heterozygosity was 0.234 (SE 0.001) for Romania and 0.229 (SE 0.001) for western Ukraine, whereas observed heterozygosity values were 0.230 (SE 0.001) versus 0.231 (SE 0.001). Population structure analyses with a maximum likelihood method supported K = 1 population, followed by K = 2 where Romania formed one cluster, and western Ukraine and Moldova formed another. Principal component analysis results were broadly consistent with K = 2. Pairwise F ST between western Ukraine and Romania was 0.042 (p = 0.001). Our findings indicated weak population differentiation, and future research may clarify whether the spatial distribution of genetic diversity in the region is associated with environmental and ecological factors such as terrain ruggedness and the distribution of prey species.

中文翻译：

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全基因组图谱表明东喀尔巴阡山脉内狼群的连通性

喀尔巴阡山脉为中欧提供了重要的野生动物栖息地，之前的全基因组研究发现西部喀尔巴阡山狼 (Canis lupus) 是一个独立的种群。向北的分化可能是由低地-山地过渡和栖息地破碎化来解释的，而延伸到罗马尼亚的东部喀尔巴阡山脉似乎向南提供了连续的野生动物栖息地。我们的目标是评估罗马尼亚、乌克兰西部和摩尔多瓦共和国狼群之间的基因流动模式和种群连通性。我们试图确定喀尔巴阡山脉地区是否最好通过遗传谱中的南北梯度来描述，或者罗马尼亚狼是否显示出北方个体聚集在乌克兰西部的种群结构。我们使用 170 000 个单核苷酸多态性标记对 48 个个体进行基因分型，并将来自罗马尼亚（n = 27）和摩尔多瓦（n = 2）的成功配置文件与来自乌克兰西部（n = 10）的现有数据合并。罗马尼亚的预期杂合度为 0.234 (SE 0.001)，乌克兰西部的预期杂合度为 0.229 (SE 0.001)，而观察到的杂合度值为 0.230 (SE 0.001) 与 0.231 (SE 0.001)。使用最大似然法进行的种群结构分析支持 K = 1 种群，其次是 K = 2，其中罗马尼亚形成一个集群，乌克兰西部和摩尔多瓦形成另一个集群。主成分分析结果与 K = 2 大体一致。乌克兰西部和罗马尼亚之间的成对 F ST 为 0.042 (p = 0.001)。我们的研究结果表明种群分化较弱，