A Study On Conservation Genetics Of Tibetan Antelope(Pantholops Hodgsoni)

Genetic diversity of Tibetan antelope(Pantholops hodgsoni) in Qinghai Hoh- Xil National Nature Reserve was investigated by analyzing mitochondrial DNA and nuclear microsatellite variation. Genetic differentiation and phylogenetic evolution of Tibetan antelope among Qinghai, Xizang and Xinjiang regional groups. The mitochondrial control region with 486~488bp was sequenced from 41 antelope individuals from three regions. 76 mutation loci have been found. 40 haplotypes were detected , 39 of which occurred in a single individual and only one of which is shared between Qinghai and Xinjiang regional groups and haplotypic diversity (h) within each group is 1. 000. Average number of differences (k)is 16. 511 and nucleotide diversity(Pi)is 0. 034. Nucleotide diversity in Xinjiang group is the lowest. For the average genetic distance within each population, Qinghai is the highest and Xinjiang is the lowest. The results above showed that the heterogeneity within groups is high. There is high level of gene flow among populations. Phylogenetic tree constructed with UPGMA (unweighted pair-group method using arithmetic average) and NJ (neighbor-joining) methods showed that there was no significant genetic differentiation among three groups.9 high polymorphic microsatellite loci were selected from 25 microsatellite loci by PCR in 75 samples from Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve. From these 9 loci 85 alleles have been found and the average number of alleles in each locus is 6.519. The PIC value at nine microsatellite ranged from 0. 753~0. 881. The average number of genetic heterozygousity is 0. 838. The results of microsatellite analyse revealed that the Tibetan antelope population in Hoh Xil National Nature Reserve took on a high level of genetic diversity.The high level of genetic variations in mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA proved that mitochondrial DNA polymorphic marker and microsatellite marker were two useful molecular markers in detecting the genetic structure of Tibetan antelope population. The results suggested that the genetic resource of Tibetan antelope in China is rich. In the end, we discussed the problems in conservation genetics research of Tibetan antelope and tried to find ways to solve them.