IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Trigo, T.C. | |
| Estrutura gen‚tica das popula‡äes de _Leopardus tigrinus_ no sul, sudeste e centro-oeste do Brasil inferida pela an lise de microssat‚lites | |
| 2003 Full Book | |
Conservation of biodiversity includes conservation of the genetic diversity. _Leopardus tigrinus_ constitutes one of the most unknown species of Felidae in the Neotropical region. The main goal of the present work was to investigate the population structure and genetic variability of populations of _L. tigrinus_ in the South, South-East and Middle-West regions of Brazil. We examined eight loci of microsatellite DNA in 54 individuals. The analysis involved also 20 individuals from _Oncifelis geoffroyi_, which were used as an outgroup in the population analysis as well as to determine the levels of interspecific genetic diversity. We found high levels of genetic diversity that are similar for these two species, being slightly larger in _L. tigrinus_. Our results showed also that there is high genetic similarity between these molecular markers in _L. tigrinus_ and _O. geoffroyi_. Analysis using Bayesian methods to link individuals to their original population allowed us to identify nine specimens of _L. tigrinus_ with significant ancestors in common with _O. geoffroyi_. These individuals were considered as possible hybrids and were excluded from the analyses. Almost all the nine indivudals identified as possible hybrids came from geographic regions that are compatible to hybrid zones. Five individuals considered as hybrids came from the central region of Rio Grande do Sul, where for sure there is contact between the two species; three specimens came from the Brazilian central region, where the occurrence of _O. geoffroyi_ is not confirmed, but the local vegetation provides favorable conditions for the species dispersion; finally, one exemplar was from Paran , and is likely to have a wrong collection site recorded. The analysis of population structure of _L. tigrinus_ revealed a pattern that is typical for populations that have undergone recent population expansion, without enough time and/or barriers to restructure the population extensively. Comparison of _L. tigrinus_ and _O. geoffroyi_ populations (excluding the nine possible hybrids) indicate that _O. geoffroyi_ has higher similarity with individuals from the South region than with southeastern specimens. This suggests that hybridization events between these species may present a larger magnitude than that was detected in this work. |
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