Population genetic structure and the effect of founder events on the genetic variability of moose, Alces alces, in Canada

Abstract

Moose, Alces alces, occur naturally throughout most of Canada but successful introductions of known numbers of animals have been made to the islands of Newfoundland and Cape Breton. Five microsatellite loci were used to investigate the population genetic structure and any change in genetic variability due to founder events of moose in Canada. Comparisons of allele frequencies for moose from 11 regions of the country suggested that there are at least seven genetically distinct populations (P < 0.05) in North America, namely Alberta, eastern Ontario, New Brunswick, Cape Breton, Labrador, western Newfoundland, and the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland. The average population heterozygosity was approximately 33% (range from 22 to 41%). upgma analysis of Nei’s genetic distances produced phenograms similar to what would be expected when geographical location and population history are considered. The loss of heterozygosity due to a single founder event (n = 3; two introductions and a natural colonization) ranged from 14 to 30%, and the cumulative loss of heterozygosity due to two successive founder events (an introduction followed by a natural colonization) was 46%. In these examples loss of genetic variability has not been associated with any known phenotypic deviances, suggesting that populations may be established from a small number of founders. However, the viability of these founded populations over evolutionary timescales cannot be determined and is highly dependent upon chance.

Genetic consequences of sequential founder events by an island-colonizing bird

“…As a result, most studies of the genetic consequences of founder events in free-living animals have been on populations artificially introduced by humans (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18), but see ref. 19).…”

The Genetic Diversity of Tibetan Red Deer Populations Determined using Mitochondrial and Microsatellite Markers

“…Genetic analysis in the present study reveals that the Tibetan red deer has higher genetic diversity (He = 0.721) than other cervid species. For example, the expected microsatellite heterozygosities of moose (Alces alces), reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) and sika deer (Cervus nippon) are 0.325, 0.364 and 0.365, respectively (Broders et al, 1999;Cote et al, 2002;Goodman et al, 2001). Mitochondrial DNA is the only observed extranuclear genetic substance in animals and is acquired through maternal inheritance.…”

“…The mitochondrial genome the cytochrome b gene has been used frequently in species identification and in research of genetic structure and diversity in the deer population (Hartl et al, 2003;Ludt et al, 2004;Wu et al, 2004;Hartl et al, 2005) because it is maternally inherited and has a relatively rapid mutation rate (Wu et al, 2004). The microsatellite marker has been an effective means of identifying individuals and investigating genetic variation and population structure in wildlife conservation and management (Broders et al, 1999;Polziehn et al, 2000) because it is bi-parentally inherited and is abundant across the genome, highly polymorphic and allows for easy genotyping (Røed, 1998). In this study, we used both the cytochrome b gene and microsatellite loci as markers to assess the level of genetic diversity and differentiation of three red deer populations from Zengqi, Woka and Baidui.…”

Loss of Genetic Diversity in Wild Populations

“…In the late 19th and early 20th century, six moose were translocated from mainland Canada to two areas of Newfoundland (Broders et al, 1999). The population in 1999 was estimated to be approximately 150,000 with more than 400,000 harvested since their introduction (Broders et al, 1999).…”