近日来自中科院动物所的研究人员在《公共科学图书馆—综合》(PLoS ONE)上发表论文称,他们证实人类景观对小羚羊产生了比高山大湖粳稻的种群基因交流隔离效应。这一研究获得了国家自然科学基金、院知识创新工程、国家科技支撑项目、国家林业局、IUCN Sir Peter Scot Fund等项目的资助。
领导这一研究的是中科院动物所的首席研究员蒋志刚教授。论文的其他作者还包括杨继、曾岩、买尔旦?吐尔干、方红霞和李春旺等人。
以往的研究认为,高山峡谷、大江大湖阻隔了物种的基因交流,地理隔离是物种形成的主要原因。中科院动物研究所野生动物与行为生态研究组最近的研究证明:即使在平坦的草原上,村落等居民点也能隔断野生动物种群之间的基因交流。
在这篇文章中,研究人员证实仅分布在青海湖盆地、共和盆地平坦草原上的善于奔跑的小羚羊——普氏原羚种群之间已经产生遗传结构分化,而人类景观是造成这种中国特有物种遗传结构分化的主要原因,人类景观对普氏原羚种群基因交流的阻隔效应比青海湖、青海湖南山等地理景观的阻隔效应更大,因而加剧了这一物种的濒危。
审稿人指出,本研究的发现是一个对科技界有重要影响的发现。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原文出处:
PLoS ONE DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0020144
Effect of Anthropogenic Landscape Features on Population Genetic Differentiation of Przewalski's Gazelle: Main Role of Human Settlement
Ji Yang,Zhigang Jiang,Yan Zeng,Mardan Turghan,Hongxia Fang,Chunwang Li
Anthropogenic landscapes influence evolutionary processes such as population genetic differentiation, however, not every type of landscape features exert the same effect on a species, hence it is necessary to estimate their relative effect for species management and conservation. Przewalski's gazelle (Procapra przewalskii), which inhabits a human-altered area on Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is one of the most endangered antelope species in the world. Here, we report a landscape genetic study on Przewalski's gazelle. We used skin and fecal samples of 169 wild gazelles collected from nine populations and thirteen microsatellite markers to assess the genetic effect of anthropogenic landscape features on this species. For comparison, the genetic effect of geographical distance and topography were also evaluated. We found significant genetic differentiation, six genetic groups and restricted dispersal pattern in Przewalski's gazelle. Topography, human settlement and road appear to be responsible for observed genetic differentiation as they were significantly correlated with both genetic distance measures [FST/(1?FST) and F′ST/(1?F′ST)] in Mantel tests. IBD (isolation by distance) was also inferred as a significant factor in Mantel tests when genetic distance was measured as FST/(1?FST). However, using partial Mantel tests, AICc calculations, causal modeling and AMOVA analysis, we found that human settlement was the main factor shaping current genetic differentiation among those tested. Altogether, our results reveal the relative influence of geographical distance, topography and three anthropogenic landscape-type on population genetic differentiation of Przewalski's gazelle and provide useful information for conservation measures on this endangered species.