Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sassari, Via Vienna 2, 07100, Sassari, Italy.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Sassari, Viale San Pietro 43b, 07100, Sassari, Italy.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jul 19;11(1):14729. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-94134-3.
Population genetic studies provide accurate information on population structure, connectivity, and hybridization. These are key elements to identify units for conservation and define wildlife management strategies aimed to maintain and restore biodiversity. The Mediterranean island of Sardinia hosts one of the last autochthonous mouflon populations, descending from the wild Neolithic ancestor. The first mouflon arrived in Sardinia ~ 7000 years ago and thrived across the island until the twentieth century, when anthropogenic factors led to population fragmentation. We analysed the three main allopatric Sardinian mouflon sub-populations, namely: the native sub-populations of Montes Forest and Mount Tonneri, and the reintroduced sub-population of Mount Lerno. We investigated the spatial genetic structure of the Sardinian mouflon based on the parallel analysis of 14 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci and mitochondrial D-loop sequences. The Montes Forest sub-population was found to harbour the ancestral haplotype in the phylogeny of European mouflon. We detected high levels of relatedness in all the sub-populations and a mitochondrial signature of hybridization between the Mount Lerno sub-population and domestic sheep. Our findings provide useful insights to protect such an invaluable genetic heritage from the risk of genetic depletion by promoting controlled inter-population exchange and drawing informed repopulation plans sourcing from genetically pure mouflon stocks.
种群遗传学研究为了解种群结构、连通性和杂交提供了准确的信息。这些是识别保护单位和制定旨在维持和恢复生物多样性的野生动物管理策略的关键要素。撒丁岛是地中海的一个岛屿,拥有最后一个本土野生盘羊种群之一,这些盘羊是从新石器时代的野生祖先繁衍而来的。第一批盘羊大约在 7000 年前抵达撒丁岛,并在整个岛屿上繁衍生息,直到 20 世纪,由于人为因素导致种群碎片化。我们分析了撒丁岛的三个主要的隔离盘羊亚种群,即:蒙特森林和托内利山的本地亚种群,以及勒诺山的重新引入的亚种群。我们基于对 14 个高度多态微卫星基因座和线粒体 D 环序列的平行分析,研究了撒丁岛盘羊的空间遗传结构。蒙特森林亚种群在欧洲盘羊的系统发育中拥有祖先单倍型。我们在所有亚种群中都检测到了高水平的亲缘关系,并且在勒诺山亚种群和家养绵羊之间存在线粒体杂交的特征。我们的研究结果为保护这种宝贵的遗传遗产提供了有用的见解,以避免因遗传枯竭而面临的风险,方法是促进种群间的受控交流,并制定明智的重新引入计划,这些计划源自遗传上纯正的盘羊种群。