Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2022, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (1): 112-121.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2022.01.011

• ANIMAL GENETICS AND BREEDING • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Evaluation of Genetic Diversity and Population Genetic Structure of Tolai Hare in Xinjiang Based on Mitochondrial DNA

MAMAT Miregul, ZHOU Shiyu, LIU Peng, MENG Yang, NIE Wenyue, TENG Peichen, SHAN Wenjuan*   

  1. Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Biological Resources and Genetic Engineering, College of Life Science and Technology, Xinjiang University, Urumqi 830046, China
  • Received:2021-04-26 Online:2022-01-23 Published:2022-01-26

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of genetic diversity and explore the genetic structure between subspecies of Lepus tolai in Xinjiang by molecular genetics methods. In this study, the CO1 and D-LOOP gene sequences of mitochondrial DNA were obtained from 78 Tolai hares from the northern, northwestern, central and eastern regions of Xinjiang by PCR amplification and sequencing, and then the data were analyzed by bioinformatics methods. The results showed that 68 haplotypes were defined from the combined sequence of 78 samples of Xinjiang Tolai hare, and relatively high haplotype diversity (h=0.996±0.002) and nucleotide diversity (π=0.049±0.023) were detected. The phylogenetic relationship and median-joining network showed that the Tolai hare samples used in this study were divided into three branches (Clade A-C), in which Clade A and C contained the majority of hares from the northern and northwest groups of Xinjiang, belong to the Lepus tolai lehmanni, while the majority of hares in Clade B were from the central and eastern regions of Xinjiang, belong to the Lepus tolai centrasiaticus. Except for few mixed samples of Tolai hare, the clustering of the rest majority was consistent with their distribution range and geographical distance. The results of AMOVA analysis, Fst and gene flow showed that the genetic differentiation between subspecies of Tolai hare was larger and the gene flow was smaller, while the genetic differentiation within subspecies was relatively small and the gene flow was relatively large. The results of neutral test showed that the Tajima’D value of Xinjiang Tolai hare population was 1.075 (P>0.05), and Fu`s Fs was -15.100 (P<0.01). The mismatch distribution of nucleotide indicated a multi-peak phenomenon, and EBSPs analysis showed that the population expansion occurred at about 0.01 Ma. The results of comprehensive analysis based on CO1 and D-LOOP gene showed that Xinjiang Tolai hare was rich in genetic diversity and had an obvious systematic geographical distribution pattern. There was a strong gene flow and a small genetic differentiation between northern and northwest groups of L. t. lehmanni. However, there was a distinct differentiation between the central and eastern groups of L. t. centrasiaticus, which was probably due to the greater geographical distance. In addition, Tolai hare has recently experienced a population expansion.

Key words: Xinjiang Lepus tolai, CO1, D-LOOP, genetic diversity, genetic structure

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