title: Pre-Historic and Recent Vicariance Events Shape Genetic Structure and Diversity in Endangered Lion-Tailed Macaque in the Western Ghats: Implications for Conservation.
abstract: Genetic isolation of populations is a potent force that helps shape the course of evolution. However, small populations in isolation, especially in fragmented landscapes, are known to lose genetic variability, suffer from inbreeding depression and become genetically differentiated among themselves. In this study, we assessed the genetic diversity of lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) inhabiting the fragmented landscape of Anamalai hills and examined the genetic structure of the species across its distributional range in the Western Ghats. We sequenced around 900 bases of DNA covering two mitochondrial regions-hypervariable region-I and partial mitochondrial cytochrome b-from individuals sampled both from wild and captivity, constructed and dated phylogenetic trees. We found that the lion-tailed macaque troops in the isolated forest patches in Anamalai hills have depleted mitochondrial DNA diversity compared to troops in larger and continuous forests. Our results also revealed an ancient divergence in the lion-tailed macaque into two distinct populations across the Palghat gap, dating to 2.11 million years ago. In light of our findings, we make a few suggestions on the management of wild and captive populations.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500007, India.
authors.forename: Muthuvarmadam S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Ram
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500007, India.
authors.forename: Minal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marne
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500007, India.
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gaur
authors.affiliation: Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, 641108, India.
authors.forename: Honnavalli N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Kumara
authors.affiliation: Biopsychology Laboratory, and Institution of Excellence, University of Mysore, Mysore, 570006, India.
authors.forename: Mewa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Wildlife Conservation Society-India, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, 560070, India.
authors.forename: Ajith
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500007, India.
authors.forename: Govindhaswamy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Umapathy
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001499:Bayes Theorem; D044822:Biodiversity; D005075:Biological Evolution; D045303:Cytochromes b / Q000235:genetics; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D017753:Ecosystem; D056727:Endangered Species; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005843:Geography; D006239:Haplotypes; D007194:India; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008251:Macaca / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; D045303:Cytochromes b