IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Marchenkova, T.V.; Darman, Y.A.; Kostyrya, A.V.; Uphyrkina, O.V. | |
| Assessing current genetic diversity of the Amur Leopard natural population | |
| 2021 Conference Proceeding | |
The genetic diversity of a natural population determines its safety margin, stability, and adaptability to changing environmental conditions. That is why special attention is paid to assessing genetic diversity and its monitoring in reintroducing rare animal species. The program for the restoration of the Amur leopard, _Panthera pardus orientalis_, the rarest representative of the genus _Panthera_, has been carried out for 20 years, but the parameters of genetic variability of the last natural population have not been assessed during this period. We tried to fill this gap and analyze the changes in genetic indices in the period from 1993 to 2020. We genotyped and analyzed twelve microsatellite loci used in the early works of O. Ufyrkina (2002), and T. Sugimoto (2014), in 13 Amur leopards, samples of which were collected between 2014 and 2020: 4 leopards were genotyped from blood samples and 9 from excrement samples. The obtained genetic parameters were compared with the previously published results of the abovementioned authors. Despite a 2-fold increase in the population since the beginning of the 21st century, the main genetic parameters have decreased. For 12 microsatellite loci, the observed heterozygosity decreased by 38.3%: from 0.54 in the 1990s to 0.33 in 2014-2020; the number of alleles per locus decreased by 15.9%; the effective number of alleles decreased by 7.8%. Verification of the equilibrium state of genotype frequencies using the Hardy-Weinberg test revealed significant deviations in two microsatellite loci that were not noted in previous studies. The estimated Fis inbreeding index increased from the conditional -0.26 to 0.23, indicating a significant homogenization of the population due to closely related crosses. Our studies have confirmed the need for measures to increase the current genetic diversity of the natural population, which can be implemented either by releasing animals from other natural leopard populations, or by adapting and reintroducing individuals from zoos. Using twelve microsatellite markers analyzed in this study is quantitatively sufficient to develop genetic monitoring of the natural population in the south-west of Primorsky Krai in the current time period. |
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