The Tsushima leopard cat exhibits extremely low genetic diversity compared with the Korean Amur leopard cat: Implications for conservation

• Ito, Hideyuki

  Kyoto City Zoo･Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University

• 村山, 美穂

  Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University･Wildlife Genome Collaborative Research Group, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba

抄録

We examined genetic diversity of the wild Tsushima leopard cat—a regional population of the Amur leopard cat—using microsatellite markers. In addition, we compared genetic diversity of the Tsushima leopard cat with that of the Korean population of Amur leopard cat. Although bias should be considered when applying cross-species amplification, the Tsushima leopard cat showed a lower index of molecular genetic diversity than did the Korean population. These results were consistent with those obtained using other genetic markers, such as mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome sequences. This low genetic diversity of the wild Tsushima leopard cat may be derived from the founding population. Furthermore, our results suggest that the captive populations held in Japanese zoos may show extremely low genetic diversity, leading to difficulties in genetic management of the Tsushima leopard cat. Moreover, the two regional populations were clearly separated using these marker sets. In the present study, we demonstrated that the genetic diversity of the Tsushima leopard cat is extremely low compared with that of the continental regional population. Importantly, the Japanese captive population for <italic>ex situ</italic> conservation was derived from a founding population with extremely low genetic diversity; hence, we assume that both the captive and wild populations showed extremely low genetic diversities. Our findings emphasize the need to develop carefully considered management strategies for genetic conservation.

収録刊行物

• PeerJ

  PeerJ 7 e7297-, 2019-07-15

  PeerJ

キーワード

• Molecular genetic analysis
• Tsushima leopard cat
• Genetic diversity

詳細情報

• CRID: 1050850634912192768
• NII論文ID: 120006949374
• ISSN: 21678359
• DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7297
• HANDLE: 2433/260577
• Web Site: https://peerj.com/articles/7297.pdf
• Web Site: https://peerj.com/articles/7297.xml
• Web Site: https://peerj.com/articles/7297.html
• 本文言語コード: en
• 資料種別: journal article
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