1. Genetic structure of the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica) population: Are tigers in Sikhote-Alin and southwest Primorye truly isolated?
- Author
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Sorokin PA, Rozhnov VV, Krasnenko AU, Lukarevskiy VS, Naidenko SV, and Hernandez-Blanco JA
- Subjects
- Animals, China, Female, Male, Microsatellite Repeats, Population Density, Russia, Sequence Analysis, DNA, Animal Distribution, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Tigers genetics
- Abstract
We used molecular genetic analyses to noninvasively identify individual Amur tigers and define subpopulations of tigers in the Russian Far East. We identified 63 individuals after genotyping 256 feces, 7 hair and 11 blood samples collected within southern, central and northern Sikhote-Alin, as well as Southwest Primorye. Analysis of nuclear DNA at 9 microsatellite loci demonstrated greater genetic similarity between animals from southern and northern Sikhote-Alin (some 500 km apart) than between animals from Ussuriskii State Nature Reserve and Southwest Primorye (less than 10 km apart at their nearest point), suggesting that a true barrier exists preventing movements of tigers between Southwest Primorye and the southern Sikhote-Alin Mountains., (© 2015 International Society of Zoological Sciences, Institute of Zoology/Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.)
- Published
- 2016
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