Low level of genetic variability in European bison

Authors: K Luenser J Fickel A Lehnen S Speck A Ludwig

Publish Date: 2005/03/15

Volume: 51, Issue: 2, Pages: 84-87

PDF Link

Abstract

Nuclear DNA markers microsatellites were used to screen the genetic variability in the European bison population of the Bialowieza National Park Poland The species is listed as endangered and the Bialowieza population is the largest one worldwide Many other herds were founded by individuals from Bialowieza Out of 18 microsatellites nine were polymorphic five were found to be homozygous and four loci did not amplify No significant deviation from Hardy–Weinbergequilibrium HWE was observed and the average number of alleles was 23 per locus Thus the European bison is characterized by a very low level of genetic diversity most likely resulting from the population decline in the nineteenth century Nevertheless allelic variability derived from the nine polymorphic loci established in this study allowed to identify each individual by its genotypic profile This data is valuable for conservation plans of this impressive species especially for the control of breeding success in these animalsWe thank our cooperative partners in Poland for providing samples M Krasinska and Z Krasinski as well as many hunters veterinarians and scientists for their support We are grateful to G Wibbelt and K Frölich for their helpful discussions to A Schmidt for technical assistance to C Kühn for genetic marker information as well as to two anonymous referees and W Lutz for his helpful comments on an earlier draft We also thank N Benecke for providing us with his submitted manuscript The authors declare that the experiments comply with the current laws in Germany

Keywords: