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Is black coat color in wolves of Iran an evidence of admixed ancestry with dogs?

  • Animal Genetics • Original Paper
  • Published:
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Abstract

Melanism is not considered a typical characteristic in wolves of Iran and dark wolves are believed to have originated from crossbreeding with dogs. Such hybrid individuals can be identified with the combined use of genetic and morphological markers. We analyzed two black wolves using a 544 base pairs (bp) fragment of the mtDNA control region and 15 microsatellite loci in comparison with 28 dogs, 28 wolves, and four known hybrids. The artificial neural networks (ANNs) method was applied to microsatellite data to separate genetically differentiated samples of wolves, dogs, and hybrids, and to determine the correct class for the black specimens. Individual assignments based on ANNs showed that black samples were genetically closer to wolves. Also, in the neighbor-joining network of mtDNA haplotypes, wolves and dogs were separated, with the dark specimens located in the wolf branch as two separate haplotypes. Furthermore, we compared 20 craniometrical characters of the two black individuals with 14 other wolves. The results showed that craniometrical measures of the two black wolves fall within the range of wolf skulls. We found no trace of recent hybridization with free-ranging dogs in the two black wolves. Dark coat color might be the result of a natural combination of alleles in the coat-color-determining gene, mutation in the K locus due to past hybridization with free-ranging dogs, or the effect of ecological factors and adaption to habitat conditions.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported financially by the Iran Department of Environment, Hamedan Provincial Office. We thank Ali Shaabani, Vahid Nouri, and Shahabaddin Montazami for their help. The authors also thank the anonymous referees for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran

    Rasoul Khosravi

  2. Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

    Marzieh Asadi Aghbolaghi, Elham Nourani & Mohammad Kaboli

  3. Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Natural Resources, Gorgan University of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran

    Hamid Reza Rezaei

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  1. Rasoul Khosravi
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  2. Marzieh Asadi Aghbolaghi
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  3. Hamid Reza Rezaei
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  4. Elham Nourani
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  5. Mohammad Kaboli
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Correspondence to Mohammad Kaboli.

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Khosravi, R., Asadi Aghbolaghi, M., Rezaei, H.R. et al. Is black coat color in wolves of Iran an evidence of admixed ancestry with dogs?. J Appl Genetics 56, 97–105 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-014-0237-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13353-014-0237-6

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