Evidence map›Paper›PMID 34349207›Full record

ArticleScientific reports2021

Hybridization with mountain hares increases the functional allelic repertoire in brown hares.

Jaakko L O Pohjoismäki, Craig Michell, Riikka Levänen, Steve Smith

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
4.9field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Coats of Variable Hue in Tunisian Hares (GenusAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

Jaakko L O PohjoismäkiDepartment of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland. Jaakko.Pohjoismaki@uef.fi.ORCID 0000-0002-1185-3610
Craig MichellDepartment of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland.ORCID 0000-0003-4706-7256
Riikka LevänenDepartment of Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland.
Steve SmithDepartment of Integrative Biology and Evolution, Konrad-Lorenz-Institute of Ethology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.ORCID 0000-0002-1318-0018
University of Eastern Finland · FIUniversity of Veterinary Medicine Vienna · AT

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Brown hares (Lepus europaeus Pallas) are able to hybridize with mountain hares (L. timidus Linnaeus) and produce fertile offspring, which results in cross-species gene flow. However, not much is known about the functional significance of this genetic introgression. Using targeted sequencing of candidate loci combined with mtDNA genotyping, we found the ancestral genetic diversity in the Finnish brown hare to be small, likely due to founder effect and range expansion, while gene flow from mountain hares constitutes an important source of functional genetic variability. Some of this variability, such as the alleles of the mountain hare thermogenin (uncoupling protein 1, UCP1), might have adaptive advantage for brown hares, whereas immunity-related MHC alleles are reciprocally exchanged and maintained via balancing selection. Our study offers a rare example where an expanding species can increase its allelic variability through hybridization with a congeneric native species, offering a route to shortcut evolutionary adaptation to the local environmental conditions.

Indexed as

AllelesGene-Environment InteractionAdaptation, PhysiologicalAnimalsBody SizeDNA, MitochondrialEvolution, MolecularGene FlowGenetic IntrogressionGenetic VariationGenotypeHaresHybridization, GeneticMajor Histocompatibility ComplexUncoupling Protein 1DNA, MitochondrialUncoupling Protein 1

Identifiers

PMID34349207
PMCPMC8338973
OpenAlexW3189071151

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.