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Here, we use whole genome sequences of five species from the genus Leopardus, a recently diversified Neotropical lineage with species bearing distinctive morphological, ecological, and behavioral features, to investigate genome-wide diversity, comparative demographic history and signatures of positive selection. Our results show that divergent ecological strategies are reflected in genomic features, for example a generalist species shows historically larger effective population size and higher heterozygosity than habitat specialists. The demographic history of these cats seems to have been jointly driven by climate fluctuations and habitat specialization, with different ecological adaptations leading to distinct trajectories. Finally, a gene involved in vertebrate retinal neurogenesis (POU4F2) was found to be under positive selection in the margay, a cat with notoriously large eyes that are likely associated with its nocturnal and arboreal specializations.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1093\/molbev\/msac117","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,31]],"date-time":"2022-05-31T20:10:18Z","timestamp":1654027818000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":11,"title":["Genomic Signatures of Divergent Ecological Strategies in a Recent Radiation of Neotropical Wild Cats"],"prefix":"10.1093","volume":"39","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8138-9203","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jorge L.","family":"Ramirez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Biolog\u00eda Celular y Gen\u00e9tica, Facultad de Ciencias Biol\u00f3gicas, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos , Lima , Peru"}]},{"given":"Jonas","family":"Lescroart","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health and Life Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) , Porto Alegre , Brazil"},{"name":"Department of Biology, University of Antwerp , Antwerp , Belgium"}]},{"given":"Henrique V.","family":"Figueir\u00f3","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health and Life Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) , Porto Alegre , Brazil"},{"name":"Center for Species Survival, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute , National Zoological Park, Front Royal, Virginia , USA"}]},{"given":"Juan Pablo","family":"Torres-Florez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto Chico Mendes de Conserva\u00e7\u00e3o da Biodiversidade\/Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conserva\u00e7\u00e3o de Mam\u00edferos Aqu\u00e1ticos (ICMBio\/CMA) , Santos , Brazil"}]},{"given":"Priscilla M. S.","family":"Villela","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"EcoMol Consultoria e Projetos , Piracicaba-SP , Brazil"}]},{"given":"Luiz L.","family":"Coutinho","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Gen\u00f4mica Funcional, Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture, University of S\u00e3o Paulo , Piracicaba , Brazil"}]},{"given":"Patricia D.","family":"Freitas","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Gen\u00e9tica e Evolu\u00e7\u00e3o, Universidade Federal de S\u00e3o Carlos , S\u00e3o Carlos, S\u00e3o Paulo , Brazil"}]},{"given":"Warren E.","family":"Johnson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute , National Zoological Park, Washington, DC , USA"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1328-1732","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Agostinho","family":"Antunes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CIIMAR\/CIMAR, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto , Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leix\u00f5es, Porto , Portugal"},{"name":"Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto , Porto , Portugal"}]},{"suffix":"Jr","given":"Pedro M.","family":"Galetti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Gen\u00e9tica e Evolu\u00e7\u00e3o, Universidade Federal de S\u00e3o Carlos , S\u00e3o Carlos, S\u00e3o Paulo , Brazil"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9658-0999","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eduardo","family":"Eizirik","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Health and Life Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS) , Porto Alegre , Brazil"},{"name":"Instituto Pr\u00f3-Carn\u00edvoros , Atibaia, S\u00e3o Carlos , Brazil"},{"name":"INCT-EECBio , Goi\u00e2nia, Goi\u00e1s , Brazil"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,5,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"2022063019180538700_msac117-B1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2073","DOI":"10.1111\/jbi.13930","article-title":"Global vegetation patterns of the past 140,000 years","volume":"47","author":"Allen","year":"2020","journal-title":"J. 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