Mitochondrial DNA Genetic Diversity of Black Muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons), An Endangered Species Endemic to China

Abstract

Genetic diversities based on the mtDNA control region were measured for both a wild population (n = 26) and a captive population (n = 18) of the black muntjac. In total, nine haplotypes were obtained from 44 samples. The wild population exhibited a low nucleotide diversity (pi = 0.00562), which suggests that the black muntjac had a small effective population size historically. In contrast to its low nucleotide diversity, haplotype diversity (h = 0.862) of the wild population was relatively high. Haplotype distribution among local samples shows a distinct difference. As anticipated because of the paucity of available founders, nucleotide diversity (pi = 0.00214) of the captive population was very low. Additionally, a high degree of haplotype identity and an obvious haplotype frequency bias was revealed in the captive population, which implies that the current breeding program should be readjusted to balance distributions of haplotypes, and some new founders should be introduced to the captive population to alleviate potential inbreeding depression.

Structure of mitochondrial DNA control region and genetic diversity of Moschus berezovskii populations in Shaanxi Province

“…Moreover, it was maximum for the Liuba population and minimum for the Fengxian population, but was still higher than 0.0047. Compared to the nucleotide diversity in the partial sequences of the control region of other Cervidae animals, P I was larger (0.0265) than that for the original musk deer (M. moschiferus; Ma, 2012), whereas it was 0.0106 for sika deer (Cervus nippon; Wu et al, 2004), 0.00562 for black muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak; Wu and Fang, 2005), and 0.0014-0.0024 for Hainan deer (Cervus eldi; Balakrishnan et al, 2003). It can be concluded that there is abundant genetic diversity of forest musk deer in the Qinling Mountains.…”

Insight into gene evolution within Cervidae and Bovidae through genetic variation in MHC-DQA in the black muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons)

“…In addition, many studies have demonstrated that MHC variation is usually subject to the influences of demographic and ecological factors (Kundu and Faulkes, 2004). Therefore, the reduced DQA diversity found in the black muntjac may be explained by the population bottlenecks that the species experienced during the last glacial period, the animal's solitary habits, and its mountainous habitat (Wu and Fang, 2005).…”

“…For conservation purposes, a captive population of the species was established in the Hefei Wild Animal Park (Hefei, Anhui Province) in the late 1980s (Wu and Fang, 2005). Neutral genetic marker analysis suggests that the genetic diversity of the captive population was much lower than that of wild stocks, and that the founders had caused a large difference in the genetic balance of later generations (Wu and Fang, 2005;Ni et al, 2009). In recent years, the population has been af-fected by gastrointestinal disease caused by parasites and has gone into decline.…”

Genetic Diversity of Chinese Water Deer (Hydropotes inermis inermis): Implications for Conservation

“…It is important to the retention of adaptive evolutionary potential and for reproductive fitness (Frankham et al, 2002). Effective conservation strategies can be determined by studying the genetic background of rare animals Wu and Fang, 2005;Zhang et al, 2004). The Zhoushan archipelago has been isolated from the mainland for thousands of years (Wang and Liu, 1980), but it was still unclear if the isolation was long enough for the Chinese water deer to evolve to uniqueness of genetic characteristics.…”