Genetics Of The Pyrenean Brown Bear (Ursus-Arctos) - 1st Results

Times Cited: 9; International audience; Total DNA has been extracted from cells found at the base of a single hair plucked from a captive Pyrenean brown bear (U. arctos). A 307-base pair portion of the cytochrome b gene (encoded by mitochondrial DNA) has been sequenced using DNA amplified by the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A phylogenetic tree has been constructed, based on this and three other homologous sequences recently published by Shields and Kocher [4]. It suggests that the Pyrenean brown bear was already separated well before the recent split between the Alaskan brown bear (U. arctos) and the polar bear (U. maritimus).