REDISCOVERING THE ALECTORIS PARTRIDGES (PHASIANIDAE): ADVANCES AND PERSPECTIVES IN THE GENOMIC ERA

The genus Alectoris (KAUP, 1829) includes seven closely related polytypic game species exhibiting either allopatric or parapatric distribution in the Palaearctic: the red-legged partridge (A. rufa), the rock partridge (A. graeca), the chukar partridge (A. chukar), the rusty-necklaced partridge (A. magna), the Barbary partridge (A. barbara), the Arabian partridge (A. melanocephala), and the Philby's partridge (Alectoris phylbyi). During the 1990s, the great socio-economic relevance associated with hunting activities has spurred interest in studying the evolutionary relationships of this species complex and of some taxa in particular, primarily the red-legged partridge, which is referred to as one of the most important small game in southwestern Europe. Nevertheless, such interest soon diminished in favour of other quarry species and the genetic results insofar obtained were not further explored with genome-wide approaches. It is only recently that the application of next generation techniques has revived a lively interest in Alectoris partridges, opening new exciting research avenues. For instance, the generation of the first de novo genome (CHATTOPADHYAY et al., 2021) of A. rufa paved the way to a comprehensive investigation of the genome-wide diversity in this species (based on over 168,000 loci), suggesting that the human-mediated introgressive hybridisation with A. chukar might not been so extensive as previously invoked with traditional genetic tools (FORCINA et al., 2021). On the other hand, the first phylogenomic study based on whole genome resequencing data (17,595,257 loci) for 25 individuals and all seven species confirmed the systematic relationships formerly established with mitochondrial markers and supported the exclusion of A. melanocephala - as previously suggested by WATSON (1962) - from the genus Alectoris. Interestingly, the Sicilian rock partridge (A. g. whitakeri) was confirmed as the most basal within its genus. This result contradicts expectations based on the biogeographic patterns of the majority of the sedentary species occurring in Sicily, raising the question of a possible human-mediated ghost introgression with other Mediterranean Alectoris species in historical times. The next research milestone is the ongoing whole-genome resequencing of Alectoris museum specimens (1800-1980s) preceding the intensive management as a fundamental prerequisite to evaluate human-mediated genetic change in a temporal other than spatial perspective.