Abstract
The gaur is the largest extant cattle species and distributed across South and Southeast Asia. Around 85% of its current global population resides in India, however there has been a gradual decrease in the gaur population over the last two decades due to various anthropogenic activities. Mitochondrial genome is considered as an important tool for species identification and monitoring the populations of conservation concern and therefore it becomes an obligation to sequence the mitochondrial genome of Indian gaur. We report here for the first time 16,345 bp mitochondrial genome of four Indian gaur sequenced using two different approaches. Mitochondrial genome consisted of 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region. Among the 37 genes, 28 were positioned on the H-strand and 9 were positioned on the L-strand. The overall base composition appeared to be 33.5% A, 27.2% T, 25.9% C and 13.4% G, which yielded a higher AT content. The phylogenetic analysis using complete mitochondrial genome sequences unambiguously suggested that gaur is the maternal ancestor of domestic mithun. Moreover, it also clearly distinguished the three sub species of B. gaurus i.e. B. gaurus gaurus, B. gaurus readei and B. gaurus hubbacki. Among the three sub species, B. gaurus gaurus was genetically closer to B. gaurus readei as compared to B. gaurus hubbacki. The findings of our study provide an insight into the genetic structure and evolutionary history of Indian gaur.
Highlights
The gaur, Bos gaurus known as “Indian bison” is the largest living wild cattle species belonging to the family Bovidae[1]
The B. gaurus has been classified into several subspecies by different researchers elucidating ambiguities in their taxonomy. Lydekker[4,5] reported three subspecies of gaur based on morphological descriptions namely Bos gaurus gaurus, which inhabits in India, Nepal and Bhutan, Bos gaurus readei, which inhabits in Cambodia, southern China, Lao PDR, Viet Nam, Myanmar, and Thailand and Bos gaurus hubbacki, which inhabits in Malaysia. Hubback[6] opined the possibility for the presence of two types of gaur in Malaysia, one with no dewlap and one possessing well developed dewlap
Groves7 & Groves and Grubb[8] proposed two sub species; B. gaurus gaurus which inhabits in India and Nepal; B. gaurus laosiensis which inhabits in Cambodia, Lao PDR, west Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, based on skull and horn size
Summary
The gaur, Bos gaurus known as “Indian bison” is the largest living wild cattle species belonging to the family Bovidae[1]. The historical distribution of gaur ranged throughout much of the mainland South and Southeast Asia Currently it occurs in a few Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, and Vietnam, with about 85% of its total population surviving in India[2]. Groves7 & Groves and Grubb[8] proposed two sub species; B. gaurus gaurus which inhabits in India and Nepal; B. gaurus laosiensis which inhabits in Cambodia, Lao PDR, west Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam, based on skull and horn size. Another subspecies B. gaurus sinhaleyus has been recorded from Sri Lanka which is e xtinct[9]. These sequences were analysed with that of Cambodian gaur, Malayan gaur and mithun to resolve the subspecies classification of gaur and shed light on the domestication history of mithun
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