Objective: Mongolia is one of a few countries that supports over 25 million goats, but genetic diversity, demographic history, and the origin of goat populations in Mongolia have not been well studied. This study was conducted to assess the genetic diversity, phylogenetic status and population structure of Mongolian native goats, as well as to discuss their origin together with other foreign breeds from different countries using hypervariable region 1 (HV1) in mtDNA.Methods: In this study, we examined the genetic diversity and phylogenetic status of Mongolian native goat populations using a 452 base-pair long fragment of HVI of mitochondrial DNA from 174 individuals representing 12 populations. In addition, 329 previously published reference sequences from different regions were included in our phylogenetic analyses.Results: Investigated native Mongolian goats displayed relatively high genetic diversities. After sequencing, we found a total of 109 polymorphic sites that defined 137 haplotypes among investigated populations. Of these, haplotype and nucleotide diversities of Mongolian goats were calculated as 0.997±0.001 and 0.0283±0.002, respectively. These haplotypes clearly clustered into four haplogroups (A, B, C, and D), with the predominance of haplogroup A (90.8%). Estimates of pairwise differences (Fst) and the analysis of molecular variance values among goat populations in Mongolia showed low genetic differentiation and weak geographical structure. In addition, Kazakh, Chinese (from Huanghuai and Leizhou), and Arabian (Turkish and Baladi breeds) goats had smaller genetic differentiation compared to Mongolian goats.Conclusion: In summary, we report novel information regarding genetic diversity, population structure, and origin of Mongolian goats. The findings obtained from this study reveal that abundant haplogroups (A to D) occur in goat populations in Mongolia, with high levels of haplotype and nucleotide diversity.

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In order to determine the relationships between bird assemblages and forest habitat, we conducted surveys for bird assemblages in different forest habitats in the Khentii Mountain region, Northern Mongolia. A total of 1730 individuals belonging to 71 species from 23 families of 11 orders were recorded. Our findings revealed that passeriformes are the most species-rich order, accounting for 86.2% of the total species. The dominant species were Anthus hodgsoni, Parus major, Poecile palustris, and Sitta europaea in study area. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) and permutation multivariate analysis of variance (PERMANOVA) showed that bird assemblages were affected by forest habitat types. Our findings also showed significant relationships between bird assemblages and canopy height and ground cover vegetation structure, whereas there were no relationships between altitude and other habitat variables. Thus, maintaining diverse forest habitats or restoring forest would play a key role in bird conservation and sustainable management of forest areas.

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