Mantellatto Aline Meira Bonfim, Caparroz Renato, Christofoletti Maurício Durante, Piovezan Ubiratan, Duarte José Maurício Barbanti
Núcleo de Pesquisa e Conservação de Cervídeos, Departamento de Zootecnia, Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (UNESP), Jaboticabal, SP, Brazil.
Departamento de Genética e Morfologia, Instituto de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil.
Genet Mol Biol. 2017 Oct-Dec;40(4):774-780. doi: 10.1590/1678-4685-GMB-2016-0323. Epub 2017 Oct 2.
The pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) is close to being classified as 'globally threatened', with the largest population occurring in the Brazilian Pantanal. Since capture is stressful to these animals, non-invasive sampling methods such as the use of feces can provide reliable sources of DNA. The aim of this study was to use fecal samples to evaluate the genetic variability of the Brazilian Pantanal population of pampas deer. Six heterologous microsatellite markers were used to screen 142 stool specimens. Seventy-four deer were identified, of which 50 adults were used to determine the genetic characteristics of the population. The Pantanal population showed high genetic diversity (mean number of alleles per locus = 11.5, expected heterozygosity = 0.75). This is the first investigation to characterize a South American deer species using fecal DNA and demonstrates the usefulness and efficiency of this approach, as well as the feasibility of obtaining information that could not have been easily obtained by traditional DNA sampling. Our findings suggest that management strategies for this species may be much more effective if applied now when the population still shows high genetic variability.
潘帕斯鹿（Ozotoceros bezoarticus）已濒临被列为“全球受威胁物种”，其最大种群分布在巴西潘塔纳尔湿地。由于捕获对这些动物来说压力较大，因此像使用粪便这样的非侵入性采样方法能够提供可靠的DNA来源。本研究的目的是利用粪便样本评估巴西潘塔纳尔湿地潘帕斯鹿种群的遗传变异性。使用六个异源微卫星标记对142份粪便标本进行筛选。鉴定出74只鹿，其中50只成年鹿用于确定该种群的遗传特征。潘塔纳尔湿地的种群表现出较高的遗传多样性（每个位点的平均等位基因数 = 11.5，预期杂合度 = 0.75）。这是首次利用粪便DNA对南美鹿种进行特征描述的研究，证明了这种方法的实用性和有效性，以及获取传统DNA采样不易获得信息的可行性。我们的研究结果表明，如果在该种群仍表现出高遗传变异性时就应用管理策略，那么对这个物种的管理策略可能会更加有效。
