Abstract
The 2011 Tohoku earthquake drastically changed human activities in some regions of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The subsequent tsunami damage and radioactive pollution from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant resulted in the evacuation of humans, and abandonment of agricultural lands, allowing population expansion of wildlife into areas formally inhabited by domesticated livestock. Unintentional escape of domesticated pigs into wildlife inhabited environments also occurred. In this study, we tested the possibility of introgression between wild boar and domesticated pigs in Fukushima and neighboring prefectures. We analyzed mitochondrial DNA sequences of 338 wild boar collected from populations in the Tohoku region between 2006 and 2018. Although most boar exhibited Asian boar mitochondrial haplotypes, 18 boar, phenotypically identified as wild boar, had a European domesticated pig haplotype. Frequencies of this haplotype have remained stable since first detection in 2015. This result infers ongoing genetic pollution in wild boar populations from released domesticated pigs. In 2018, this haplotype was detected outside of evacuated areas, suggesting migration and successful adaptation. The natural and anthropocentric disasters at Fukushima gave us the rare opportunity to study introgression processes of domestic genes into populations of wild boar. The present findings suggest a need for additional genetic monitoring to document the dispersal of domestic genes within wild boar stock.
Highlights
The 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accidents in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, drastically changed human activities in areas close to the disaster sites
There is a dearth of genetic composition studies for wild boar populations in the Tohoku region of Japan making it difficult to analyze the consequences of hybridization with domestic stock following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident
We investigated the mitochondrial DNA of wild boar in Fukushima, Yamagata, and Miyagi Prefectures with the aims to: (1) study possible changes in mtDNA genetic composition of wild boar following the FDNPP disaster, and (2) determine if the frequency of escaped domestic pig mtDNA occurrence in wild boar populations is stable, increasing or declining within Fukushima’s evacuated zones or neighboring Prefectures
Summary
The 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accidents in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, drastically changed human activities in areas close to the disaster sites. Potential introgression occurred following the FDNPP accident when some of an estimated 31,500 domesticated pigs left behind in the evacuation zone escaped into the wild[15]. This dispersal of released pigs into nearby environments may have long term ecological consequences by altering traits like reproduction rate or immunology of current wild boar populations[14,16,17]. There is a dearth of genetic composition studies for wild boar populations in the Tohoku region of Japan making it difficult to analyze the consequences of hybridization with domestic stock following the FDNPP accident. We investigated the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of wild boar in Fukushima, Yamagata, and Miyagi Prefectures with the aims to: (1) study possible changes in mtDNA genetic composition of wild boar following the FDNPP disaster, and (2) determine if the frequency of escaped domestic pig mtDNA occurrence in wild boar populations is stable, increasing or declining within Fukushima’s evacuated zones or neighboring Prefectures
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