Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.
PLoS One. 2011;6(8):e24045. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0024045. Epub 2011 Aug 29.
The extant roe deer (Capreolus Gray, 1821) includes two species: the European roe deer (C. capreolus) and the Siberian roe deer (C. pygargus) that are distinguished by morphological and karyotypical differences. The Siberian roe deer occupies a vast area of Asia and is considerably less studied than the European roe deer. Modern systematics of the Siberian roe deer remain controversial with 4 morphological subspecies. Roe deer fossilized bones are quite abundant in Denisova cave (Altai Mountains, South Siberia), where dozens of both extant and extinct mammalian species from modern Holocene to Middle Pleistocene have been retrieved.
METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We analyzed a 629 bp fragment of the mitochondrial control region from ancient bones of 10 Holocene and four Pleistocene Siberian roe deer from Denisova cave as well as 37 modern specimen belonging to populations from Altai, Tian Shan (Kyrgyzstan), Yakutia, Novosibirsk region and the Russian Far East. Genealogical reconstructions indicated that most Holocene haplotypes were probably ancestral for modern roe deer populations of Western Siberia and Tian Shan. One of the Pleistocene haplotypes was possibly ancestral for modern Yakutian populations, and two extinct Pleistocene haplotypes were close to modern roe deer from Tian Shan and Yakutia. Most modern geographical populations (except for West Siberian Plains) are heterogeneous and there is some tentative evidence for structure. However, we did not find any distinct phylogenetic signal characterizing particular subspecies in either modern or ancient samples.
CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Analysis of mitochondrial DNA from both ancient and modern samples of Siberian roe deer shed new light on understanding the evolutionary history of roe deer. Our data indicate that during the last 50,000 years multiple replacements of populations of the Siberian roe deer took place in the Altai Mountains correlating with climatic changes. The Siberian roe deer represent a complex and heterogeneous species with high migration rates and without evident subspecies structure. Low genetic diversity of the West Siberian Plain population indicates a recent bottleneck or founder effect.
现存的獐鹿（Capreolus Gray，1821）包括两个物种：欧洲獐鹿（C. capreolus）和西伯利亚獐鹿（C. pygargus），它们在形态和染色体上有所区别。西伯利亚獐鹿分布于亚洲广大地区，研究程度远低于欧洲獐鹿。现代西伯利亚獐鹿的分类学仍然存在争议，有 4 个形态亚种。在 Denisova 洞穴（阿尔泰山脉，南西伯利亚）中，獐鹿的化石骨骼非常丰富，从中发现了数十种现代全新世到中更新世的现存和已灭绝的哺乳动物物种。
方法/主要发现：我们分析了来自 Denisova 洞穴的 10 个全新世和 4 个更新世西伯利亚獐鹿的古代骨骼以及来自阿尔泰山、天山（吉尔吉斯斯坦）、雅库特、新西伯利亚地区和俄罗斯远东地区的 37 个现代样本的线粒体控制区 629bp 片段。系统发育重建表明，大多数全新世单倍型可能是现代西西伯利亚和天山獐鹿种群的祖先。一个更新世单倍型可能是现代雅库特种群的祖先，而两个灭绝的更新世单倍型与现代天山和雅库特獐鹿密切相关。大多数现代地理种群（西西伯利亚平原除外）是异质的，存在一些结构的初步证据。然而，我们在现代或古代样本中都没有发现任何明显的具有特定亚种特征的系统发育信号。
结论/意义：对来自古代和现代西伯利亚獐鹿的线粒体 DNA 分析为獐鹿的进化历史提供了新的认识。我们的数据表明，在过去的 50000 年中，阿尔泰山脉的西伯利亚獐鹿种群发生了多次更替，与气候变化有关。西伯利亚獐鹿是一个复杂而多样的物种，具有高迁移率，没有明显的亚种结构。西西伯利亚平原种群的遗传多样性较低，表明最近发生了瓶颈或奠基者效应。
