A Primary Study On The Genetic Diversity Of The Wintering Hooded Crane (Grus Monacha)

Hooded Crane Grus monacha is a threatened species on the Red List of IUCN and their population is still in decline due to habitat loss. It is necessary to study the genetic diversity for effective conservation of the bird. In this study, faeces samples from three lakes, Shengjin Lake, Caizi Lake and Poyang Lake were collected for genetic analysis. The results show as fellow.(1) A total of 1103 base pairs bp of the mitochondrial control region from Hooded crane collected from two lakes in Anhui(Caizi Lake, Shengjin Lake) and Poyang Lake in Jiangxi Province were sequenced.38 control region sequences were obtained. In 38 control region sequences,12 variable sites were determined and 12 haplotypes were identified, of which two haplotypes were shared by all populations, 10 haplotypes were unique for single population. Combining with the two sequences obtained from GeneBank,2 haplotypes were identified. Haplotypes diversity(h) of all populations was 0.784, nucleotides diversity(π) was 0.00128, and average number of nucleotide differences(k) was 1.414.(2) Haplotypes diversity(h) of populations in Anhui and Poyang were 0.802 and 0.679, nucleotide diversity (π) were 0.00143 and 0.00071 respectively, while average number of nucleotide differences(k)were 1.572 and 0.786 respectively. In these populations, haplotypes diversity, nucleide diversity and average number of nucleotide differences were higher in the Anhui population than in the Poyang population. Neutrality test and mismatch distribution analysis(SSD=0.00879, P=0.16) revealed a significant population expansion sign in the Hooded crane population, which happened in about 17916 year ago. Analysis of molecular variance(AMOVA) revealed that 99.4% of the variation was within populations, while among populations was only 0.6%. The genetic variance was not significant (Fst=0.00600, P>0.05), as was also indicated in the phylogenetic tree. Gene flow was identified between the two populations, which shared haplotypes. The haplotypes may result from the presence of ancient haplotypes, or differences between groups in the near future, or gene flow among populations.