Genetic diversity of captive forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) inferred from the mitochondrial DNA control region

Abstract

Forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) were once distributed widely in China. However, wild populations have declined dramatically because of poaching and habitat loss. Captive breeding populations have been established for several decades, but the genetic backgrounds of most captive populations were unclear and the population sizes increased very slowly. To provide useful information for conservation and management of this species, we investigated the genetic diversity and population structure of forest musk deer by analysing a 582-bp fragment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region (CR) in three captive breeding populations in Sichuan Province, China. Ninety-four variable sites and 27 haplotypes were observed in 109 individuals, and the nucleotide and haplotype diversities were relatively high compared with those of other endangered mammals. Of the three investigated populations, the Maerkang population had the highest nucleotide diversity (pi=0.0568), haplotype diversity (h=0.836) and average intra-population genetic distance (0.062). The analysis of molecular variance demonstrated that most variation occurred within samples and that there was significant differentiation of the three populations. Estimates of gene flow indicated that there were few genetic exchanges among the three populations. Building pedigree records and increasing gene flow between populations will be helpful for conserving these populations and this species.

Major histocompatibility complex class II polymorphisms in forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii) and their probable association with purulent disease

“…In molecular characterization studies on forest musk deer, the main focus has been on microsatellite loci (Zou et al ., ; Xia et al ., ; Zhang et al ., ; Zhao et al ., ; Guan et al ., ) and the mitochondrial DNA region (Peng et al ., ,b). The results of these studies indicate that this endangered species still retains high genetic diversity.…”

“…Using the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region to study three captive populations of forest musk deer in Sichuan, Peng et al . () found that the captive breeding populations of forest musk deer had not undergone a bottleneck or founder effect because of the short captive breeding time, and they inferred that severe inbreeding may be occurring in the captive populations because they found that many samples shared a haplotype. The observed heterozygosity was lower than expected in most loci in our study (Table ), implying that this population may have experienced inbreeding.…”

Next generation sequencing yields the complete mitogenome of captive forest musk deer, Moschus berezovskii (Ruminantia: Moschidae)

“…Nevertheless, during the long process of captive breeding, historical records about the genetic backgrounds of many captive populations were either lost or incomplete. Therefore, understanding the genetic diversity and phyletic evolution of the captive populations are the two most important tasks for excellent provenance selection (Peng et al 2008). Sample (voucher no.…”

Whole-genome sequencing of wild Siberian musk deer (Moschus moschiferus) provides insights into its genetic features

“…In recent years, there has been significant progress in the studies of musk deer ecology, taxonomy, evolution history by paleontological, morphological, ecological and ethological and molecular analysis [22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. The musk composition and secretory mechanism of musk have been explored by various aspects, including microsatellite, mtDNA marker, and transcriptome sequencing data [41][42][43][44][45][46]. Besides, the gut microbial communities have been illustrated by metagenome sequencing [9,47,48].…”