Diversity of mtDNA in Southern River Otter (Lontra provocax) from Argentinean Patagonia

Lontra provocax is an endemic species from Patagonia that has been categorized as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In this study, noninvasive molecular methods were used to investigate the genetic diversity and haplotype distribution of L. provocax in Argentinean P...

ver descrição completa

Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Centron, Daniela, Ramírez, Benjamín Alejandro, Fasola, Laura, Macdonald, David W., Chehébar, Claudio, Schiavini, Adrian Carlos Miguel, Cassini, Marcelo Hernan
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2008
País:Argentina
Recursos:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/156787
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/156787
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:mtDNA
Lontra provocax)
Argentinean Patagonia
Southern River Otter
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.7
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descrição
Resumo:Lontra provocax is an endemic species from Patagonia that has been categorized as “endangered” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In this study, noninvasive molecular methods were used to investigate the genetic diversity and haplotype distribution of L. provocax in Argentinean Patagonia. We analyzed 150 scat samples collected from 1995 to 2006 and obtained 13 sequences of control region with 1 haplotype and 34 sequences of cytochrome b with 4 haplotypes. The population of the south of Patagonia (Tierra del Fuego and De los Estados Island) showed a relatively high haplotype diversity (h = 0.71) and was statistically different to the population of the north (analysis of molecular variance, FST = 0.15, P = 0.018). We concluded that there are 2 different subpopulations of L. provocax that deserve conservation attention and that the southern population appears not to have suffered a human-induced population bottleneck of the sort typically experienced by various otter species around the world.