DeYoung Randy W, Demarais Stephen, Honeycutt Rodney L, Rooney Alejandro P, Gonzales Robert A, Gee Kenneth L
Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Box 9690, Mississippi State University, MS 39762, USA.
Mol Ecol. 2003 Dec;12(12):3237-52. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-294x.2003.01996.x.
White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) were nearly extirpated from the southeastern USA during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Recovery programmes, including protection of remnant native stocks and transplants from other parts of the species' range, were initiated in the early 1900's. The recovery programmes were highly successful and deer are presently numerous and continuously distributed throughout the southeastern USA. However, the impact of the recovery programmes on the present genetic structure of white-tailed deer remains to be thoroughly investigated. We used 17 microsatellite DNA loci to assess genetic differentiation and diversity for 543 white-tailed deer representing 16 populations in Mississippi and three extra-state reference populations. There was significant genetic differentiation among all populations and the majority of genetic variation (> or = 93%) was contained within populations. Patterns of genetic structure, genetic similarity and isolation by distance within Mississippi were not concordant with geographical proximity of populations or subspecies delineations. We detected evidence of past genetic bottlenecks in nine of the 19 populations examined. However, despite experiencing genetic bottlenecks or founder events, allelic diversity and heterozygosity were uniformly high in all populations. These exceeded reported values for other cervid species that experienced similar population declines within the past century. The recovery programme was successful in that deer were restored to their former range while maintaining high and uniform genetic variability. Our results seem to confirm the importance of rapid population expansion and habitat continuity in retaining genetic variation in restored populations. However, the use of diverse transplant stocks and the varied demographic histories of populations resulted in fine-scale genetic structuring.
白尾鹿（弗吉尼亚鹿）在19世纪末和20世纪初几乎在美国东南部灭绝。20世纪初启动了恢复计划，包括保护残余的本地种群以及从该物种分布范围的其他地区进行移植。恢复计划非常成功，目前白尾鹿数量众多，在美国东南部连续分布。然而，恢复计划对当前白尾鹿遗传结构的影响仍有待深入研究。我们使用17个微卫星DNA位点来评估代表密西西比州16个种群和三个州外参考种群的543只白尾鹿的遗传分化和多样性。所有种群之间存在显著的遗传分化，并且大部分遗传变异（≥93%）存在于种群内部。密西西比州内的遗传结构、遗传相似性和距离隔离模式与种群的地理接近度或亚种划分不一致。在我们检测的19个种群中的9个中发现了过去遗传瓶颈的证据。然而，尽管经历了遗传瓶颈或奠基者事件，但所有种群的等位基因多样性和杂合度均普遍较高。这些超过了过去一个世纪内经历类似种群数量下降的其他鹿科物种的报告值。恢复计划取得了成功，因为白尾鹿恢复到了它们以前的分布范围，同时保持了高且一致的遗传变异性。我们的结果似乎证实了快速的种群扩张和栖息地连续性对于在恢复种群中保留遗传变异的重要性。然而，使用多样化的移植种群以及种群不同的人口统计学历史导致了精细尺度的遗传结构。
