2026-04-14T05:26:07Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:10230/685232026-03-24T07:14:14Zcom_2072_6col_2072_452952

00925njm 22002777a 4500 dc Dios Martínez, Toni de author Fontseré Alemany, Clàudia, 1992- author Renom, Pere author Stiller, Josefin author Llovera Nadal, Laia author Uliano-Silva, Marcela author Sánchez-Gracia, Alejandro author Wright, Charlotte author Lizano González, Esther, 1974- author Caballero, Berta author Navarro, Arcadi author Civit, Sergi author Robbins, Robert K. author Blaxter, Mark author Marquès i Bonet, Tomàs, 1975- author Vila, Roger author Lalueza Fox, Carles, 1965- author 2024-11-14T08:21:35Z 2024-11-14T08:21:35Z 2024 The Xerces Blue (Glaucopsyche xerces) is considered to be the first butterfly to become extinct in historical times. It was notable for its chalky lavender wings with conspicuous white spots on the ventral wings. The last individuals were collected in their restricted habitat, in the dunes near the Presidio military base in San Francisco, in 1941. We sequenced the genomes of four 80- to 100-year-old Xerces Blue, and seven historical and one modern specimens of its closest relative, the Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus). We compared these to a novel annotated genome of the Green-Underside Blue (Glaucopsyche alexis). Phylogenetic relationships inferred from complete mitochondrial genomes indicate that Xerces Blue was a distinct species that diverged from the Silvery Blue lineage at least 850,000 years ago. Using nuclear genomes, both species experienced population growth during the Eemian interglacial period, but the Xerces Blue decreased to a very low effective population size subsequently, a trend opposite to that observed in the Silvery Blue. Runs of homozygosity and deleterious load in the former were significantly greater than in the later, suggesting a higher incidence of inbreeding. These signals of population decline observed in Xerces Blue could be used to identify and monitor other insects threatened by human activities, whose extinction patterns are still not well known. CL-F is supported by a PID2021-124590NB-100 grant (MCIU/AEI/FEDER, UE) of Spain; TM-B is supported by funding from the European Research Council (ERC) (grant agreement No. 864203), BFU2017-86471-P (MINECO/FEDER, UE), 'Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu', funded by the AEI (CEX2018-000792-M), Howard Hughes International Early Career, and Generalitat de Catalunya, GRC 2017-SGR-880; RV is supported by grant PID2019-107078GB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, and by GRC 2017-SGR-991 (Generalitat de Catalunya). We are grateful to the SCIENCE Faculty at University of Copenhagen for free access to Computerome 2.0. This research was funded in whole, or in part, by the Wellcome Trust Grants 206194 and 218328 (MU, MB). For the purpose of Open Access, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright license to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising from this submission. Green-Underside Blue Silvery Blue Xerxes Blue Evolutionary biology Whole genomes from the extinct Xerces Blue butterfly can help identify declining insect species