Admixture of Eastern and Western European Red Deer Lineages as a Result of Postglacial Recolonization of the Czech Republic (Central Europe).
Due to a restriction of the distributional range of European red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) during the Quaternary and subsequent recolonization of Europe from different refugia, a clear phylogeographical pattern in genetic structure has been revealed using mitochondrial DNA markers. In Central Europe, 2 distinct, eastern and western, lineages of European red deer are present; however, admixture between them has not yet been studied in detail. We used mitochondrial DNA (control region and cytochrome b gene) sequences and 22 microsatellite loci from 522 individuals to investigate the genetic diversity of red deer in what might be expected to be an intermediate zone. We discovered a high number of unique mtDNA haplotypes belonging to each lineage and high levels of genetic diversity (cyt b H = 0.867, D-loop H = 0.914). The same structuring of red deer populations was also revealed by microsatellite analysis, with results from both analyses thus suggesting a suture zone between the 2 lineages. Despite the fact that postglacial recolonization of Central Europe by red deer occurred more than 10000 years ago, the degree of admixture between the 2 lineages is relatively small, with only 10.8% admixed individuals detected. Direct translocations of animals by humans have slightly blurred the pattern in this region; however, this blurring was more apparent when using maternally inherited markers than nuclear markers.
From the Institute of Vertebrate Biology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., 603 65 Brno, Czech Republic (Krojerová-Prokešová, Barančeková and Koubek); and the Department of Forest Protection and Game Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 165 21 Prague 6 Suchdol, Czech Republic (Koubek). krojerova@ivb.cz.
Jarmila
J
Krojerová-Prokešová
From the Institute of Vertebrate Biology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., 603 65 Brno, Czech Republic (Krojerová-Prokešová, Barančeková and Koubek); and the Department of Forest Protection and Game Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 165 21 Prague 6 Suchdol, Czech Republic (Koubek).
Miroslava
M
Barančeková
From the Institute of Vertebrate Biology Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., 603 65 Brno, Czech Republic (Krojerová-Prokešová, Barančeková and Koubek); and the Department of Forest Protection and Game Management, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, 165 21 Prague 6 Suchdol, Czech Republic (Koubek).
Petr
P
Koubek
D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D018153:Czech Republic; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics; D003670:Deer / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats; D008957:Models, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny; D058974:Phylogeography; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D005819:Genetic Markers
Gene introgression; Quaternary; hybridization; microsatellites; mtDNA; suture zone