Shen Yulong, Gong Ye, Solovyeva Diana, Wang Lin, Li Mu, Hu Mengxuan, Jiang Yiwei, Vartanyan Sergey, Wang Haitao
School of Life Sciences Northeast Normal University Changchun China.
Institute of Biological Problems of the North FEB RAS Magadan Russia.
Ecol Evol. 2024 Jul 9;14(7):e70011. doi: 10.1002/ece3.70011. eCollection 2024 Jul.
Examining patterns of genetic diversity are crucial for conservation planning on endangered species, while inferring the underlying process of recent anthropogenic habitat modifications in the context potential long-term demographic changes remains challenging. The globally endangered scaly-sided merganser (SSME), , is endemic to a narrow range in Northeast Asia, and its population has recently been contracted into two main breeding areas. Although low genetic diversity has been suggested in the Russian population, the genetic status and demographic history of these individuals have not been fully elucidated. We therefore examined the genetic diversity and structure of the breeding populations of the SSME and investigated the relative importance of historical and recent demographic changes to the present-day pattern of genetic diversity. Using 10 nuclear microsatellite (SSR) markers and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences, we found limited female-inherited genetic diversity and a high level of nuclear genetic diversity. In addition, analysis of both markers consistently revealed significant but weak divergence between the breeding populations. Inconsistent demographic history parameters calculated from mtDNA and bottleneck analysis results based on SSR suggested a stable historical effective population size. By applying approximate Bayesian computation, it was estimated that populations started to genetically diverge from each other due to recent fragmentation events caused by anthropogenic effects rather than isolation during Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and post-LGM recolonization. These results suggest that limited historical population size and shallow evolutionary history may be potential factors contributing to the contemporary genetic diversity pattern of breeding SSME populations. Conservation efforts should focus on protecting the current breeding habitats from further destruction, with priority given to both the Russian and Chinese population, as well as restoring the connected suitable breeding grounds.
研究遗传多样性模式对于濒危物种的保护规划至关重要，而在潜在的长期人口变化背景下推断近期人为栖息地改变的潜在过程仍然具有挑战性。全球濒危的中华秋沙鸭是东北亚狭窄区域特有的物种，其种群最近已收缩到两个主要繁殖区。尽管有人认为俄罗斯种群的遗传多样性较低，但这些个体的遗传状况和种群历史尚未完全阐明。因此，我们研究了中华秋沙鸭繁殖种群的遗传多样性和结构，并调查了历史和近期人口变化对当前遗传多样性模式的相对重要性。使用10个核微卫星（SSR）标记和线粒体DNA（mtDNA）控制区序列，我们发现雌性遗传的遗传多样性有限，而核遗传多样性水平较高。此外，对这两种标记的分析一致显示繁殖种群之间存在显著但微弱的差异。根据mtDNA计算的不一致的种群历史参数和基于SSR的瓶颈分析结果表明历史有效种群大小稳定。通过应用近似贝叶斯计算，估计由于人为影响导致的近期破碎化事件，而不是末次盛冰期（LGM）和末次盛冰期后重新定殖期间的隔离，种群开始在遗传上彼此分化。这些结果表明，有限的历史种群规模和较浅的进化历史可能是导致中华秋沙鸭繁殖种群当代遗传多样性模式的潜在因素。保护工作应侧重于保护当前的繁殖栖息地免受进一步破坏，优先考虑俄罗斯和中国的种群，以及恢复相连的适宜繁殖地。
