Genetic analysis of mitochondrial ND5 gene of siberian ibex (Capra Sibirica, Pallas, 1776) population in Mongolia

The Siberian ibex (Capra sibirica) from Central Asia is believed to be the most ancient species of the genus Capra. In Mongolia, it is distributed in the areas of Mongolian Altai, Gobi-Altai, Dzungaria, Altai, Khan Khuhii, Khoridal Saridag and Ulaan Taiga as well as in the desert and semi-desert steppe zones of Dundgobi and Dornogobi aimags (provinces). In the current study, we investigated the mitochondrial ND5 gene fragments of the Siberian ibex population from different parts of Mongolia. Nine haplotypes, including 6 shared and 3 unique haplotypes were identified among these populations. Furthermore, Tajima’s statistics and Fu’s statistics did not reveal significant positive value across the population, indicating population decline and balancing selection.In the phylogenetic tree by 9 haplotypes, no separated clusters were generated. In addition, nucleotide diversity was 0.015, haplotype diversity was 0.86 and the average number of differences in nucleotides was 8.2 in the overall population. These results suggest that genetic diversity across all the populations was low, while haplotype diversity and the average number of differences in nucleotides were high

Genetic comparison of Altai and Gobi argali sheep (Ovis ammon) populations using mitochondrial and microsatellite markers: Implication on conservation

Argali sheep is an ungulate, which inhabits the north, west, south and central regions of Mongolia. There are two major populations (Altai and Gobi) in Mongolia, but their taxonomic classification as subspecies is often disputed among researchers. Furthermore, there is no recent study about the population genetic structure of argali sheep in Mongolia. In the present study, we have investigated genetic diversity and difference between Altai and Gobi argali populations using mitochondrial control region hyper variable segment (HVS) sequence (598bp) and 3 microsatellite markers. Mitochondrial HVS haplotype analysis showed high haplotype diversity (0.982±0.012) and low nucleotide diversity (0.02589). In microsatellite analysis, total of 9 alleles were found across all loci while mean Ho were 0.59±0.13 for Altai and 0.53±0.1 for Gobi populations, indicating low allelic diversity with moderate heterozygosity. Neighbor-joining tree separated haplotypes into two clusters, Altai and Gobi population, implying distinct genetic difference between the two subspecies. Additionally, Pairwise FST and Kimura-2 parameter showed 0.127 and 0.0413±0.0068, respectively. These genetic distance analyses hinted genetic difference between Altai and Gobi populations are in subspecies level. In summary, mitochondrial HVS and microsatellite analysis demonstrated that Altai and Gobi populations had low genetic diversity but might be genetically distinct from each other in subspecies level, suggesting conservation should be separately managed

Conservation implications of elucidating the Korean wolf taxonomic ambiguity through whole-genome sequencing

The taxonomic status of the now likely extirpated Korean Peninsula wolf has been extensively debated, with some arguing it represents an independent wolf lineage, Canis coreanus. To investigate the Korean wolf's genetic affiliations and taxonomic status, we sequenced and analysed the genomes of a Korean wolf dated to the beginning of the 20th century, and a captive wolf originally from the Pyongyang Central Zoo. Our results indicated that the Korean wolf bears similar genetic ancestry to other regional East Asian populations, therefore suggesting it is not a distinct taxonomic lineage. We identified regional patterns of wolf population structure and admixture in East Asia with potential conservation consequences in the Korean Peninsula and on a regional scale. We find that the Korean wolf has similar genomic diversity and inbreeding to other East Asian wolves. Finally, we show that, in contrast to the historical sample, the captive wolf is genetically more similar to wolves from the Tibetan Plateau; hence, Korean wolf conservation programmes might not benefit from the inclusion of this specimen