Assessing the origin, genetic structure and demographic history of the common pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) in the introduced European range

Mohammad Reza Ashrafzadeh,Cecilia Aguayo,Carlos Fernandes,Zoltán Bagi,Bendegúz Mihalik,László Szendrei,Vukan M. Lavadinović,Rasoul Khosravi,Dejan Beuković,Szilvia Kusza

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-00567-1

Abstract

The common pheasant, a game species widely introduced throughout the world, can be considered as an ideal model to study the effects of introduction events on local adaptations, biogeographic patterns, and genetic divergence processes. We aimed to assess the origin, spatial patterns of genetic variation, and demographic history of the introduced populations in the contact zone of Central and Southeast Europe, using mitochondrial DNA control region sequences and microsatellite loci. Both types of molecular markers indicated relatively low to moderate levels of genetic variation. The mtDNA analyses revealed that common pheasants across the study area are divided into two distinct clades: B (mongolicus group) and F (colchicus group). Analyses of the microsatellite data consistently suggested a differentiation between Hungary and Serbia, with the pheasant population in Hungary being much more genetically homogeneous, while that of Serbia has much more genetic mixture and admixture. This cryptic differentiation was not detected using a non-spatial Bayesian clustering model. The analyses also provided strong evidence for a recent population expansion. This fundamental information is essential for adequate and effective conservation management of populations of a game species of great economic and ecological importance in the studied geographical region.

Highlights

Genetic variation plays a central role in the evolution and ability of species to adapt to continuous environmental changes, and in their long-term persistence in the face of an increasing and constant anthropogenic disturbances[1,2]
A 825 base pairs fragment of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region was sequenced for 69 P. colchicus individuals, 29 samples from Hungary and 40 samples from Serbia (Fig. 1)
Several studies have investigated the genetic diversity, population structure and demographic history of the common pheasant across its native range in A sia[30,31,43,44,45], there is a great lack of this kind of information on the populations introduced into Europe

Summary

Introduction

Genetic variation plays a central role in the evolution and ability of species to adapt to continuous environmental changes, and in their long-term persistence in the face of an increasing and constant anthropogenic disturbances[1,2]. Their historic range is a widespread management action to support harvest in wildlife, fisheries, and forestry[15]. The identity of these subspecies and the genetic composition of the introductions still need to be investigated because some common pheasant morphological subspecies are not supported by molecular data[30], possibly as a result of recent range expansions and subspecies admixture[31]. Hybrids of different subspecies may have been released in areas with native subspecies in Southeast Europe, which may lead to the extinction of the latter by genetic swamping[32], as apparently in the case of the indigenous South Caucasus pheasant populations in B ulgaria[22]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion