Taberlet P, Bouvet J
Laboratoire de Biologie des Populations d'Attitude, CNRS EP55, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France.
Proc Biol Sci. 1994 Mar 22;255(1344):195-200. doi: 10.1098/rspb.1994.0028.
Some small European populations of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) are threatened by the risk of extinction in the near future. The reinforcement of these populations with bears from other regions might provide a solution to their future survival. However, before any population transfer, the different conservation units must be identified. The phylogeographic approach has been advocated for this purpose. The different European populations were assayed for mitochondrial (mt) DNA polymorphism. A remarkable degree of concordance was found between the geographic distribution and the mtDNA haplotypes. Two clearly distinct lineages differing by more than 7% in mtDNA control region sequences were found and, furthermore, the western lineage appears to be organized into two clades which correspond to two different ancestral refugia. The potential conservation units can be deduced from these results, and a management policy can consequently be inferred. This study clearly demonstrates the relevance of the molecular phylogeographic approach to the identification of conservation units.
欧洲一些小型棕熊（ Ursus arctos）种群面临着在不久的将来灭绝的风险。从其他地区引入棕熊来增加这些种群数量，可能为它们未来的生存提供解决方案。然而，在进行任何种群转移之前，必须先确定不同的保护单元。为此，有人主张采用系统地理学方法。对欧洲不同的棕熊种群进行了线粒体（mt）DNA多态性分析。结果发现，地理分布与mtDNA单倍型之间存在显著的一致性。研究发现了两个明显不同的谱系，它们的mtDNA控制区序列差异超过7%，此外，西部谱系似乎又分为两个分支，分别对应两个不同的祖先避难所。从这些结果可以推断出潜在的保护单元，进而可以推断出相应的管理政策。这项研究清楚地证明了分子系统地理学方法在确定保护单元方面的相关性。
