Abstract
Sika deer (Cervus nippon) is a cervid endemic to mainland and insular Asia and endangered. We analyzed variation in the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region for four subspecies to understand the genetic diversity, population structure and evolutionary history in China. 335 bp were sequenced and eight haplotypes were identified based on 25 variable sites among the populations. Sika deer in China showed lower genetic diversity, suggesting a small effective population size due to habitat fragmentation, a low number of founder individuals, or the narrow breeding program. AMOVA analysis indicated that there was significant genetic subdivision among the four populations, but no correlation between the genetic and geographic distance. Phylogenetic analyses also revealed that Chinese sika deer may be divided into three genetic clades, but the genetic structure among Chinese populations was inconsistent with subspecies designations and present geographic distribution. Including the sequence data of Japanese sika deer, the results indicated that Chinese populations were more closely related to Southern Japanese populations than to the Northern Japanese one, and the Taiwan population was closer to populations of Northeastern China and Sichuan than to those of Southern China.
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