title: Genetic status of the wood stork (Mycteria americana) from the southeastern United States and the Brazilian Pantanal as revealed by mitochondrial DNA analysis.
abstract: The  wood stork (Mycteria americana) is a colonial wading bird that inhabits  the Neotropical region from the southeastern United States (US) to northern  Argentina. The species is considered to be endangered in the US due to  degradation of its foraging and breeding habitat. In other parts of its range,  such as in the Brazilian Pantanal region, breeding populations of this species  appear to be stable. We compared the levels of genetic variability and  population structuring of the US and the Pantanal breeding populations using  mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) control region sequences. Twenty-seven haplotypes  were identified among 88 wood stork samples collected from eight breeding  colonies in the US and eight in the Pantanal. Patterns indicative of  heteroplasmy were observed in 35.3% of the mtDNA sequences that were examined.  Significantly higher levels of haplotype diversity were observed in the  Pantanal samples compared to those from the US, suggesting that during the  last century, demographic declines or a recent evolutionary bottleneck reduced  the levels of mtDNA variability of the US population. Analyses of genetic  structuring revealed non-significant genetic differentiation between these  regions, indicating that either the populations were only recently separated or  that gene flow continues to occur at low levels. Haplotype network analysis  indicated low current levels of gene flow between populations that were closely  related in the past.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Genética e Evolução, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, São Carlos, SP, Brasil. iaraflopes@ufsj.edu.br
authors.forename: I F
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Tomasulo-Seccomandi
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Bryan
authors.forename: I L
authors.initials: IL
authors.lastname: Brisbin
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Glenn
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Del Lama
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D001717:Birds / Q000235:genetics*; D001938:Brazil; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000032:analysis* / Q000235:genetics*; D056727:Endangered Species; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D008928:Mitochondria / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014481:United States
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial