The Evolutionary Dynamics of the Lion Panthera leo Revealed by Host and Viral Population Genomics

Antunes, Agostinho; Troyer, Jennifer L.; Roelke, Melody E.; Pecon-Slattery, Jill; Packer, Craig; Winterbach, Christiaan; Winterbach, Hanlie; Hemson, Graham; Frank, Laurence; Stander, Philip; Siefert, Ludwig; Driciru, Margaret; Funston, Paul J.; Alexander, Kathy A.; Prager, Katherine C.; Mills, Gus; Wildt, David; Bush, Mitch; O'Brien, Stephen J.; Johnson, Warren E.

Understanding the broader aspects of lion evolutionary history has been hindered by a lack of comprehensive sampling and appropriately informative genetic markers [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] , which in species of modern felids requires large, multigenic data sets due to its generally rapid and very recent speciation [10, 11] . Nevertheless, the unique social ecology of lions [12] [13] [14] and the fact that lions have experienced well-documented infectious disease outbreaks, including canine distemper virus, feline parvovirus, calicivirus, coronavirus, and lion feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV Ple ) [15] [16] [17] [18] provide a good opportunity to study lion evolutionary history using both host and virus genetic information. Indeed, population genetics of transmitted pathogens can accurately reflect the demographic history of their hosts [19, 20] . Unlike other of the 36 cat species, lions have a cooperative social system (prides of 2-18 adult females and 1-9 males) and their populations can have high frequencies of FIV Ple , a lentivirus analogous to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS-like immunodeficiency disease in domestic cats. FIV Ple is a retrovirus that integrates into the host genome and is transmitted by cell-to-cell contact, which in felids occurs during mating, fighting and motherto-offspring interactions. Thus, viral dissemination is a function in part of the frequency of contact between infected and naïve lions within and among populations. The virus is quite genetically diverse in lions [15, 18] , offering a unique marker for assessing ongoing lion demographic processes.