Abstract
To evaluate the conservation status of a species or population it is necessary to gain insight into its ecological requirements, reproduction, genetic population structure, and overall genetic diversity. In our study we examined the genetic diversity of Rhinopithecus brelichi by analyzing microsatellite data and compared them with already existing data derived from mitochondrial DNA, which revealed that R. brelichi exhibits the lowest mitochondrial diversity of all so far studied Rhinopithecus species. In contrast, the genetic diversity of nuclear DNA is high and comparable to other Rhinopithecus species, i.e. the examined microsatellite loci are similarly highly polymorphic as in other species of the genus. An explanation for these differences in mitochondrial and nuclear genetic diversity could be a male biased dispersal. Females most likely stay within their natal band and males migrate between bands, thus mitochondrial DNA will not be exchanged between bands but nuclear DNA via males. A Bayesian Skyline Plot based on mitochondrial DNA sequences shows a strong decrease of the female effective population size (Nef) starting about 3,500 to 4,000 years ago, which concurs with the increasing human population in the area and respective expansion of agriculture. Given that we found no indication for a loss of nuclear DNA diversity in R. brelichi it seems that this factor does not represent the most prominent conservation threat for the long-term survival of the species. Conservation efforts should therefore focus more on immediate threats such as development of tourism and habitat destruction.
Highlights
Many animal species are threatened by extinction and for a number of species long-term survival is questionable without a proper conservation and population management [1,2,3,4,5]
The overall Fis value for the eight microsatellite loci is not significantly different from zero (p = 0.72) suggesting that the R. brelichi population does not depart from Hardy-Weinberg Equilibrium (HWE)
In contrast to the low diversity in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), diversity in nuclear DNA (nDNA) does not differ from other Rhinopithecus species
Summary
Many animal species are threatened by extinction and for a number of species long-term survival is questionable without a proper conservation and population management [1,2,3,4,5]. 50% of the World’s primate species are threatened (classified as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List [3]), among them the Guizhou snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus brelichi). This endangered species is endemic to China and it occurs only in a single population of less than 900 individuals in the Fanjingshan National Nature Reserve (FNNR), Guizhou Province of southern China [16,17,18,19,20]. A low diversity of mtDNA compared to related species describes only a low female effective population size (Nef) sometime in the past and does not give feasible information about the total genetic variation of the species. Since the population size of R. brelichi is relatively small, we expect to find a similar impoverished nuclear genetic diversity as for mtDNA, which would make a population genetic management plan more important [22]
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