Sequence Variation Of Mitochondrial DNA NADH Dehydrogenase Subunit 5 In Captive South China Tigers

Among the five extant subspecies of tiger in the world, the South China tiger Panthera tigris amoyensis is the only subspecies endemic to China. This subspecies appears to be extinct in the wild and exists now only in captivity. The current captive population was initiated from six wild-caught founders brought into captivity 35 years ago, and no new lines have been introduced since 1970. Because of the small base of genetic diversity within the small founder population, together with the rapid inbreeding that is an inevitable consequence of such a small population size, the genetic diversity of current South China tiger captive population may decrease rapidly, which is likely to make it more prone to extinction from new disease or other environmental changes. Therefore, genetic diversity in the South China tiger captive population is a major concern in the current conservation of this rare subspecies.Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has now been widely applied in population genetics and conservation biology of endangered animals because of its high mutation rate. In exhibiting relatively high rates of mutation in the Felidae, the NADH dehydrogenase subunit 5 (ND5) seems to be the most appropriate gene for resolving the phylogenetic relationships and genetic diversity analysis within a feline genus in which genetic diversification is supposed to be low. Therefore, for the first time, we examined the genetic diversity of the captive South China tiger...