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https://www.ias.ac.in/article/fulltext/jgen/076/02/0099-0115

Cats; population genetics; Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium; spatial autocorrelation; gametic disequilibrium; Catalonia; midwestern USA

The genetic structure of natural populations of the domestic cat was examined at the microgeographic level (in the Spanish city of Barcelona) and the macrogeographic level (in Catalonia in Spain, and in upper midwestern USA) using frequency data for seven monogenic morphological traits. At the microgeographic level in the city of Barcelona there was no evidence for nonrandom mating within colonies, and estimates of between-colony gene flow were quite high. At the macrogeographic level, the populations from Catalonia and upper midwestern USA differed in two major respects: (i) The Catalan populations were in reasonably good agreement with expectations of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium while the North American populations showed some evidence of the Wahlund effect (overall heterozygote deficiency indicating population substructuring). (ii) In the Catalan populations, approximately fifty per cent of the genetic differentiation between populations could be explained by geographical separation while in North America only four per cent of the total differentiation was attributable to geographical distance.

Manuel Ruiz-Garcia^{1 2 3 4} Keith K. Klein⁵

1. Institute de Genetica, Departamento de Ciencias Biologicas, Universidad de los Andes, Calle 18 Carrera 1E, Bogota, D. C., Colombia
2. Unidad de Genetica (Biologia Evolutiva), Departamento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cra 7A No. 43-82, Bogota, D. C., Colombia
3. CIGEEM, Avd. Virgen Montserrat 207 6°1a, Barcelona - 08041, Spain
4. Departamento de Biologia, Facultad de Ciencias, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Cra 7A No. 43-82, Bogota, D.C., Colombia
5. Department of Biological Sciences, Mankato State University, P.O. Box 8400, Mankato, MN - 56002-8400, USA

Published

August 1997

Manuscript received

30 November 1996

Manuscript revised

25 March 1997