Studies On The Conservation Genetics Of Tibetan Antelope (Pantholops Hodgsonii)

The Tibetan antelope(Pantholops hodgsonii)is endemic to the Tibetan plateau. In the past several decades,the Tibetan antelope has undergone dramatic decline of population size and severe population fragmentation mainly due to poaching and curtailment of the habitats.Therefore,the Tibetan antelope attracted a lot of attentions of the Chinese government,conservation scientists and other conservative organizations in the world.In the present study,57 Tibetan antelope individuals were sampled from Arjin Shan Nature Reserve in Xinjiang,Chang Tang Nature Reserve in Tibet and Kekexili Nature Reserve in Qinghai.The present study based on the analyses of the Tibetan antelope mitochondrial control region and microsatelite analyses with MEGA,DnaSP and ARLEQUIN software to investigate the genetic diversity background, evolutionary history and population relationships.The main results and implications for the conservation of the Tibetan antelope species are as below:1)The average nucleotide variation(p)of the studied Tibetan antelope populations was 2.18%,specifically 1.87%for the Xinjiang population,2.05%for the Xizang population and 2.47%for the Qinghai population.The above data indicated that the genetic diversity of the current Tibetan antelope population is relatively high.2)Among the three Tibetan antelope populations:①there are statistically significant(p=0.0367)genetic differentiation indicated by Fst=0.01347 between the Xinjiang and Qinghai populations;②There was high level of gene flow between the Xinjiang and Xizang populations.The genetic differentiation index(Fst=-0.00416)shows there is no statistically significant genetic differentiation between the Xinjiang and Xizang populations(p=0.7266).③The genetic differentiation index(Fst)is 0.01063 between Xizang and Qinghai populations.There is nearly statistically significant genetic differentiation between the Xizang and Qinghai populations(p=0.05554).Furthermore,the Qinghai,Xinjiang and Xizang population have 5,4 and 3 specific alleles respectively which shows that there is different level of genetic differentiation among three Tibetan antelope populations.3)The neutrality test showed significant Fu's Fs value of -28.15(p＜0.01),and detection of the mismatch distribution indicated the proximity of the Tibetan antelope population change to the growth-decline model.They both indicated that population expansion has ever occurred to the Tibetan antelope species in the evolutionary history.The results will be of vital significance to the further studies of other wild species on the Tibetan plateau.4)Reinforce the protection of the habitats and prevent poaching activities to keep the high genetic diversity and evolutionary potential of Tibetan antelope. Moreover,some actions should be taken to promote the the gene flow of different Tibetan antelope population,avoid genetic differentiation by habitats protection and ecological obersavation and so on.