Evidence for Introgressive Hybridization of Captive Markhor (Capra falconeri) with Domestic Goat: Cautions for Reintroduction

Similar documents
MOLECULAR PHYLOGENETIC RELATIOSHIPS IN ROMANIAN CYPRINIDS BASED ON cox1 AND cox2 SEQUENCES

CHAPTER III RESULTS. sampled from 22 streams, representing 4 major river drainages in New Jersey, and 1 trout

Original language: English CoP18 Doc. 47 CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA

Bighorn Sheep Research Activity Love Stowell & Ernest_1May2017 Wildlife Genomics & Disease Ecology Lab Updated 04/27/2017 SMLS

Taxonomy and Conservation

Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

CITES and argali. CITES Secretariat

Trophy Hunting- Pakistan. A successful community-based programme by Tahir Rasheed

Characterization of two microsatellite PCR multiplexes for high throughput. genotyping of the Caribbean spiny lobster, Panulirus argus

wi Astuti, Hidayat Ashari, and Siti N. Prijono

Continued Genetic Monitoring of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho White Sturgeon Conservation Aquaculture Program

Memorandum of Understanding concerning. Conservation, Restoration and Sustainable Use of the Saiga Antelope (Saiga tatarica tatarica)

Genetic analysis of radio-tagged westslope cutthroat trout from St. Mary s River and Elk River. April 9, 2002

Employer Name: NOAA Fisheries, Northwest Fisheries Science Center

Biodiversity Conservation at Al Ain Zoo

Shinisaurus crocodilurus

georgii (TELEOSTEI: ISTIOPHORIDAE):

submitted: fall 2009

Studbook breeding program Cuora mccordi (McCord s box turtle)

Genetic Relationship among the Korean Native and Alien Horses Estimated by Microsatellite Polymorphism

Revealing the Past and Present of Bison Using Genome Analysis

The Sustainability of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.) in South West England

SUMMARY KEYWORDS. Bluefin tuna, Population Genetics, Electronic Tagging, Spawning Migrations

ESF Cuora trifasciata & Cuora cyclornata Studbook

MOLECULAR CHARACTERISATION AND PHYLOGENETICS OF MALAYSIAN GREEN AROWANA (Scleropages formosus) IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA

Occasionally white fleeced Ryeland sheep will produce coloured fleeced lambs.

Position of WWF Mongolia Program Office on current situation of Argali hunting and conservation in Mongolia

Faculty of Veterinary Science Faculty of Veterinary Science

Neglected Taxonomy of Rare Desert Fishes: Congruent Evidence for Two Species of Leatherside Chub

Systematics and Biodiversity of the Order Cypriniformes (Actinopterygii, Ostariophysi) A Tree of Life Initiative. NSF AToL Workshop 19 November 2004

Fig. 3.1 shows the distribution of roe deer in the UK in 1972 and It also shows the location of the sites that were studied in 2007.

Molecular comparison of Clarias batrachus (Linnaeus, 1758) found in India with the species reported from Bangladesh

Initial microsatellite analysis of wild Kootenai River white sturgeon and subset brood stock groups used in a conservation aquaculture program.

Barcoding the Fishes of North America. Philip A. Hastings Scripps Institution of Oceanography University of California San Diego

AMENDMENTS TO APPENDICES I AND II OF THE CONVENTION. Other Proposals

Hybridization versus Randomly-Sorting Ancestral Alleles: Genetic Variation in Lake Malawi Cichlids

Trout stocking the science

Concept paper on In-situ ex-situ linkage -Conservation Breeding of Endangered Wild Animal Species in India

A Discussion on Conservation Strategies for Endangered Charismatic Megafauna

PhysicsAndMathsTutor.com. International Advanced Level Biology Advanced Subsidiary Unit 3: Practical Biology and Research Skills

An Update on Bison Genetics and Genomics"

Assessment of giraffe populations and conservation status in East Africa. People s Trust for Endangered Species Final Report: May 2016

What DNA tells us about Walleye (& other fish) in the Great Lakes

BIODIVERSITY OF LAKE VICTORIA:

Genetic consequences of stocking with hatchery strain brown trout: experiences from Denmark. Michael M. Hansen

Cutthroat trout genetics: Exploring the heritage of Colorado s state fish

Identification of Species-Diagnostic SNP Markers in Tilapias Using ddradseq

Society for Wildlife Forensic Science Develop Wildlife Forensic Science into a comprehensive, integrated and mature discipline.

Hartmann s Mountain Zebra Updated: May 2, 2018

Genetic Diversity of Chinese Indigenous Pig Breeds in Shandong Province Using Microsatellite Markers*

Marker, L. (2005). Aspects of ecology, biology and conservation strategies of Namibian farmland cheetahs. Animal Keeper's Forum 7/8.

The Complex Case of Colorado s Cutthroat Trout in Rocky Mountain National Park

Salmon bycatch patterns in the Bering Sea pollock fishery

Sustaining Wild Species

Exotic Wildlife Association Membership Alert

Population structure and genetic diversity of Bovec sheep from Slovenia preliminary results

JENJIT KHUDAMRONGSAWAT 1*, TUCKSAORN BHUMMAKASIKARA 2 AND NANTARIKA CHANSUE 3

Primate Evolution. Section 1. Primates

Other Relevant International Standards OIE Global Conference on Rabies Control 7-9 September 2011, Incheon, Korea

Sustainable use of wildlife in the context of the GIZ Regional Programme in Central Asia

Legendre et al Appendices and Supplements, p. 1

Republic of Malawi. Country Profile. Giraffe Conservation Status Report. Sub- region: Southern Africa

Eric Taylor University of British Columbia

NATIONAL: SUPPORT FOR CIRCUS ANIMAL BAN

WORLD. Geographic Trend Report for GMAT Examinees

CONSERVATION & MANAGEMENT OF LARGE MAMMALS IN THE CENTRAL KARAKORAM NATIONAL PARK. Dr. Anna Bocci & Mr. Zafar Khan

Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 90-Day Findings on Petitions to Delist

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN PRODUCTION NOTE. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library Large-scale Digitization Project, 2007.

Faster, better, cheaper: Transgenic Salmon. How the Endangered Species Act applies to genetically

Catlow Valley Redband Trout

J. Feng, C. Lajia, D. J. Taylor, and M. S. Webster

9-1 What Role Do Humans Play in the Premature Extinction of Species?

Genetic correlations between racing performance at different racing distances in Thoroughbreds and Arab horses

20 th Int. Symp. Animal Science Days, Kranjska gora, Slovenia, Sept. 19 th 21 st, 2012.

Molecular phylogeny of the Romanian cyprinids from the Danube River

Outline. Evolution: Human Evolution. Primates reflect a treedwelling. Key Concepts:

What you need for population management: A recently updated/current studbook database Knowledge of institutions wants and needs

AN ISSUE OF GENETIC INTEGRITY AND DIVERSITY: ASSESSING THE CONSERVATION VALUE OF A PRIVATE AMERICAN BISON HERD

CITES Secretariat Saker Falcons in trade: a case study

Status and Distribution of the Bobcat (Lynx rufus) in Illinois

Chapter 14. Wildlife, Fisheries and Endangered Species. What are we Saving? Traditional Single-Species Wildlife Management

Section 3: The Future of Biodiversity

PERSIAN FALLOW DEER GRANT PROPOSAL

Causes of Tiger (Panthera tigris) Population Decline, and Potential Consequences if the Decline Continues

Little Kern Golden Trout Status:

Original language: English and French CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA

7 GULF OF ALASKA POLLOCK

BRIEF COMMUNICATION Phylogenetic relationships within the genus Pimephales as inferred from ND4 and ND4L nucleotide sequences

59 th EAAP Annual Meeting August 24-27, 2008, Vilnius, Lithuania Abstract # 2908, Session 08

ICES advice on management of Baltic Sea salmon Released 16 June 2008

Giraffe population has plunged, now "threatened with extinction"

Phylogenetic relationships of the lancelets of the genus Branchiostoma in China inferred from mitochondrial genome analysis

aV. Code(s) assigned:

Major threats, status. Major threats, status. Major threats, status. Major threats, status

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Feasibility Study on the Reintroduction of Gray Wolves to the Olympic Peninsula

Human Ancestry (Learning Objectives)

MALAWI CICHLIDS SARAH ROBBINS BSCI462 SPRING 2013

Breaking The Brand. Conservation - A New Approach. International Zoo News Vol. 62. No. 3 (2015), pp

Genome-scale approach proves that the lungfish-coelacanth sister group is the closest living

Evaluating genetic connectivity and re-colonization dynamics of moose in the Northeast.

Transcription:

Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 DOI 10.1007/s10528-008-9145-y Evidence for Introgressive Hybridization of Captive Markhor (Capra falconeri) with Domestic Goat: Cautions for Reintroduction Sabine E. Hammer Æ Harald M. Schwammer Æ Franz Suchentrunk Received: 2 May 2007 / Accepted: 2 November 2007 / Published online: 29 January 2008 Ó Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2008 Abstract Markhors (Capra falconeri) are among the most endangered mammal species, and several conservation measures, including ex situ breeding, are implemented to prevent their extinction. We studied sequence diversity and differentiation of the first hypervariable segment of the mitochondrial DNA control region among C. f. heptneri and C. f. megaceros kept in four zoos in relationship to lineages of other wild and domestic goats, to assess for the first time the level of molecular distinctness and variability among those subspecies, and to check for possible introgression by related Capra taxa, such as domestic goats. Levels of differentiation between some Capra falconeri lineages and modern domestic goats were similar to levels between other wild goat species (i.e., Capra aegagrus, Capra ibex) and domestic goats. Among pure markhor lineages, paraphyly was observed for C. f. heptneri, suggesting occurrence of shared ancestral polymorphism among markhor subspecies and/or ancient or recent gene exchange between subspecies. Interestingly, 35.7% of all studied markhors from three zoos are introgressed by the domestic goat. Furthermore, despite relatively small breeding group sizes, markhors have maintained a relatively high proportion of mtdna variation within zoo groups. In any case, the existence of markhors introgressed with domestic goat DNA in zoos should be considered when selecting markhors for ex situ breeding programs with the aim of building up a stock for later reintroduction into the wild. S. E. Hammer (&) Clinical Immunology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Veterinärplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, Austria e-mail: sabine.hammer@phylo-dat.net H. M. Schwammer Zoo Vienna, Maxingstrasse 13 B, A-1130 Vienna, Austria F. Suchentrunk Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Savoyenstrasse 1, A-1160 Vienna, Austria

Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 217 Keywords Capra falconeri Markhor Mitochondrial control region Introgression Conservation genetics Introduction Markhors, Capra falconeri (Wagner 1839), are today struggling for survival in semiarid, cliffside mountain areas (at an elevation of 600 3,600 m) of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, in the southern border region of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, as well as in northern India (Fig. 1). The majority of the total world population is found in Pakistan and is estimated to encompass about 3,200 3,700 animals, with numbers generally decreasing (Shackleton 1997; Weinberg et al. 1997). However, certain conservation measures, such as community-based conservation or ex situ breeding, have been implemented in recent years and appear to Fig. 1 Distribution of the markhor, C. falconeri, modified after Brent Huffman, http://www.ultimate ungulate.com (compiled from Shackleton 1997 and Weinberg et al. 1997). The gray shading indicates areas in which markhor occurrence has been recorded. The Bukharan markhor, C. f. heptneri, occurs in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan, whereas the straight-horned markhor, C. f. megaceros, can be found mainly in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The arrows indicate markhor populations that might have gone extinct already (Weinberg et al. 1997)

218 Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 have a positive effect on at least some markhor populations (Virk 2000; see also Rosser et al. 2005 for a critical review of regulated trophy hunting in markhor). The subspecies C. f. falconeri (the Astor or flare-horned markhor) and C. f. megaceros (the Kabul or straight-horned markhor) are endangered, and C. f. heptneri (the Tadjik or Bukharan markhor) is critically endangered (Shackleton 1997). The subspecies C. f. cashmiriensis (the Cashmere markhor) and C. f. jerdoni (the Suleiman markhor) are not listed in the 2004 IUCN Red List, but C. f. jerdoni and C. f. megaceros are registered as endangered in the CITES Appendix I, U.S. ESA (cf. Grubb 2005). Markhor occurs mainly in highly fragmented populations of relatively small local size (\100 individuals) that are threatened by habitat loss, uncontrolled poaching, illegal trophy hunting, and disturbance, together with forage competition from domestic livestock (Shackleton 1997; Weinberg et al. 1997). A captive breeding program for the Tadjik markhor (C. f. heptneri) was running in Tajikistan in the late 1980s, but the civil war in Afghanistan caused extensive damage to the ecology of the reserve. Currently, a captive breeding program (ARES markhor breeding program) is aimed at developing a group of genetically diverse C. f. heptneri in semiopen habitat in the Lesser Carpathians, Slovakia (Pokoradi 2005). Most of the markhor currently held in western zoos or wildlife parks are considered to belong to this latter subspecies (Shackleton 1997). The objective of this study is to investigate diversity and differentiation patterns within and among C. f. heptneri and C. f. megaceros (C. f. falconeri samples could not be obtained) kept in zoos in relationship to lineages of other wild and domestic goats. The extent of molecular lineage differentiation within and between subspecies or groups held in zoos should be relevant for decisions associated with possible ex situ breeding programs. In particular, we ask how divergent mitochondrial lineages are in individuals kept in zoos, and whether zoo individuals represent pure lineages or show introgression by domestic goat; the latter cannot be excluded a priori for all zoo groups. Materials and Methods Studied Animals Total genomic DNA was isolated from whole blood samples of 28 captive markhor from four zoos in Europe, representing two different subspecies: the Bukharan markhor C. f. heptneri and the straight-horned markhor C. f. megaceros (Table 1). Whole blood samples of captive markhor were collected from 1996 to 1998, and the study presented here was carried out in the years 2005 and 2006. DNA Extraction and Sequencing Total DNA was extracted using the GenElute Mammalian Genomic DNA Miniprep Kit (Sigma, MO), following the manufacturer s instructions. Approximately 1 lg of extracted DNA was subjected to a first round of PCR to amplify the entire mtdna

Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 219 Table 1 Wild specimens included in the analysis of the phylogenetic relationship among Capra species, with special reference to the markhor (C. falconeri) Species Common name Geographic origin Accession number Reference b mtdna HVI haplotype c C. [ibex] caucasica West Caucasian tur Georgia AJ317875 1 C. [ibex] sibirica Siberian ibex Pakistan AJ317874 1 C. [ibex] nubiana Nubian ibex Israel AJ317871 1 C. cylindricornis Daghestan tur Dagestan (Russia) AJ317868 1 Dagestan (Russia) AJ317869 1 C. aegagrus blythi Sindh ibex Kirthar Mountains (Pakistan) AB110591 3 C. aegagrus Bezoar ibex Japan a AB004076 2 Turkmenistan or AJ317866 1 France a Turkmenistan or AJ317867 1 France a Turkmenistan or France a AJ317864 1 C. falconeri heptneri Bukharan markhor Tajikistan or Turkmenistan Tajikistan or Turkmenistan Zoo Berlin-1 Zoo Berlin-2 Zoo Berlin-3 Zoo Berlin-4 Zoo Berlin-5 Zoo Berlin-6 Zoo Berlin-7 Zoo Berlin-8 Zoo Berlin-9 Zoo Blackpool-10 (UK) Zoo Blackpool-11 (UK) Zoo Blackpool-12 (UK) Zoo Helsinki-14 AJ317872 1 AJ317873 1 HVI_CF7 AM231808 4 HVI_CF1 AM231812 4 HVI_CF5 AM231809 4 HVI_CF2 AM231812 4 HVI_CF5 AM231810 4 HVI_CF3

220 Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 Table 1 continued Species Common name Geographic origin Accession number Reference b mtdna HVI haplotype c C. falconeri megaceros Straight-horned markhor Zoo Helsinki-15 Zoo Helsinki-16 Zoo Helsinki-17 Zoo Helsinki-18 Zoo Helsinki-19 Zoo Helsinki-20 Zoo Helsinki-21 Zoo Helsinki-22 Zoo Helsinki-23 Zoo Helsinki-24 Zoo Vienna-25 (Austria) Zoo Vienna-26 (Austria) Zoo Vienna-27 (Austria) Zoo Vienna-28 (Austria) Zoo Vienna-29 (Austria) Ovis aries Domestic sheep AB006801 2 AM231812 4 HVI_CF5 AM231812 4 HVI_CF5 AM231812 4 HVI_CF5 AM231811 4 HVI_CF4 a Details for the geographic origin of the C. aegagrus specimens: Japan, Gumma Safari Park, Tomioka (Japan); Turkmenistan or France, Turkmenistan or captive (Paris, France) b References: 1, Luikart et al. (2001); 2, Takada et al. (1997); 3, Sultana et al. (2003); 4, this study c Whole blood samples of captive markhor were collected from 1996 to 1998. C. falconeri private haplotypes are indicated in bold. Ovis aries served as outgroup in the phylogenetic reconstruction control region by using universal primers H00651 and L15926 (Kocher et al. 1989). To target 372 bp at the 5 0 end of the mtdna HVI region, a nested PCR was performed with the primers CAPFI and CAPFI (Luikart et al. 2001), tagged with M13-specific tails for automated sequencing. PCR reactions were performed on an Eppendorf Mastercycler Gradient; the thermal cycling parameters and protocols are given in Kocher et al. (1989) and Luikart et al. (2001), respectively. PCR reactions were analyzed on 1.5% agarose/etbr gels in 19 TAE, purified and subjected to automated sequencing on the LiCor Long Readir 4200 (LiCor, Inc., NE).

Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 221 Capra hircus Subset for Phylogenetic Reconstruction We constructed a DNA sequence data matrix (372 bp), comprising the seven newly found C. falconeri haplotypes of the mtdna HVI region, 11 Capra spp. originating either from wild populations or from zoos (Table 1), and 428 C. hircus haplotypes, by using the alignment program Clustal X (Thompson et al. 1997). The computed sequence alignment was checked by eye and manually edited if necessary. Although we used a shorter mtdna HVI alignment of 372 bp instead of 469 bp (Luikart et al. 2001), neither a loss of potentially informative haplotypes nor a significant reduction of the phylogenetic signal (i.e., parsimony informative sites) or important alterations in the topologies of the resulting trees (data not shown) were detected, when comparing the downloaded sequences of the two alignment sizes (372 vs. 469 bp). Calculating the percent sequence identity of the two C. f. heptneri (Luikart et al. 2001) (accession nos. AJ317872 and AJ317873) based on either 469 bp or on our presently used 372 bp segment did not show a significant difference (0.946004 and 0.943547). Thus, we concluded that our reduced alignment length would not have reduced the overall information in the study significantly. The C. hircus subset included 314 haplotypes from the Middle and Near East, southern and northern Europe, Asia, and sub-saharan Africa (Luikart et al. 2001) (accession nos. AJ317533 AJ317875); 36 haplotypes from Europe, Africa, India, and Asia (Amills et al. 2004) (AY424903 AY424949); 49 haplotypes from Pakistan (Sultana et al. 2003; Sultana and Mannen 2004) (AB110552 AB110591, AB162196 AB162217); 14 haplotypes from China (Chen et al. 2005) (AY853278 AY853301); 9 haplotypes from Laos (Mannen et al. 2001) (AB044295 AB044304); and 6 haplotypes from zoos or national livestock breeding centers in Japan (Takada et al. 1997) (AB004076 AB004082). Phylogenetic Reconstruction Analyses Neighbor-joining (NJ) analysis was conducted with Mega version 3.1 (Kumar et al. 2004) under the TrN93+I+G model (Tamura and Nei 1993) optimized for this data set by Modeltest 3.06 (Posada and Crandall 1998). Additionally, maximumlikelihood and parsimony analyses were conducted using PAUP version 4.02b (Swofford 2001), implementing the settings of the TrN93+I+G model in the respective analysis. The robustness of the phylogenies was assessed by the bootstrap percentage (Felsenstein 1985) and by the reliability percentages, i.e., the number of times the group appears after 10,000 puzzling steps. Pairwise distances and net distances between groups were computed using Mega version 3.1 (Kumar et al. 2004) based on the previously selected model (Tamura and Nei 1993). Results and Discussion From the 28 studied markhor specimens, we obtained seven mtdna HVI haplotypes, occurring solely among C. falconeri and including four private ones:

222 Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 HVI_CF1, 2, 3, and 4 (Table 1; Fig. 2). All mtdna HVI haplotypes were found among C. f. heptneri, except HVI_CF4, which seems to be restricted to C. f. megaceros. The mtdna HVI haplotypes HVI_CF5 and 7 are the only ones shared by C. f. heptneri and C. f. megaceros. In the NJ bootstrap consensus tree, those particular haplotypes occur only among the markhor forming the distinct cluster clearly separated from the domestic goats (Fig. 2). The NJ analysis further revealed that the C. falconeri haplotypes HVI_CF2, 3, and 6 arise among the C. hircus-a cluster, displaying HVI_CF3 as a basal offshoot in this cluster. For the domestic goat sequences downloaded, we found four mtdna HVI haplogroups (C. hircus-a, -B, -C, and D). The large star-shaped cluster (C. hircus-a) comprises 398 C. hircus mtdna HVI haplotypes found in specimens from all geographic sampling locations, together with one C. aegagrus haplotype (Takada et al. 1997) (accession no. AB004076). The three smaller clusters (C. hircus-b, -C, and -D) contain only 3, 18, and 9 C. hircus mtdna HVI haplotypes, respectively, found mainly in Pakistan, Cashmere, Laos, Mongolia, and China. Maximum-likelihood and parsimony-based Fig. 2 NJ bootstrap consensus tree of 447 haplotypes of Capra spp. The tree was constructed under the TrN93+I+G model (base frequencies: A = 0.3384, C = 0.2220, G = 0.1463, T = 0.2933; proportion of invariable sites: 0.4923; shape parameter of the gamma distribution: 0.5290). The branch lengths are proportional to the amount of evolutionary change that has occurred along them. Numbers at the major clades denote the bootstrap percentages of 1,000 replicates. The large star-shaped cluster (C. hircus-a) contains 398 mtdna HVI haplotypes, whereas the three smaller lineages (C. hircus-b, -C, and -D) contain only 18, 3, and 9 mtdna HVI haplotypes, respectively. The inset (a) shows the haplotype composition of the first C. falconeri cluster in more detail. The inset (b) displays the position of C. falconeri haplotypes in the large star-shaped cluster (C. hircus-a) in more detail. Private C. falconeri haplotypes are indicated in bold

Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 223 trees were nearly identical in shape, with similarly high bootstrap supports (data not shown). Three C. f. heptneri haplotypes (HVI_CF2, 3, and 6) occurred together with one C. aegagrus (Takada et al. 1997) (accession no. AB004076) within the large starshaped cluster of C. hircus-a, pointing toward a retained ancestral variation, or introgression of domestic goat genes into markhors. Among pure markhor lineages, paraphyly was observed for C. f. heptneri, which might indicate occurrence of shared ancestral polymorphism within markhor and/or ancient or recent gene exchange between these subspecies in the wild. The wild-living C. f. heptneri (Luikart et al. 2001) (accession no. AJ317872) showed nearly the same phylogenetic distance from the neighboring C. f. heptneri haplotypes as was observed for the C. hircus-d clade and C. ibex caucasica (Luikart et al. 2001) (accession no. AJ317875) (Fig. 2; Table 2). Among the two C. cylindricornis sequences (Luikart et al. 2001) (accession nos. AJ317868 AJ317869), a slightly lower divergence was found than among nonintrogressed markhor (Table 2). That latter comparison might suggest a similar divergence in the mtdna of wild-living markhors as compared to other wild-living goats (e.g., C. aegagrus; Fig. 2). Genetic distances between wild goats and wild-living and captive markhors were 11.1 and 12.4%, respectively, whereas pairwise comparison between captive and wild-living markhors exhibits 8.1% (Table 3). To determine the proportion of sequence variation of markhor due to the investigated zoo groups and the two studied subspecies (C. f. heptneri and C. f. megaceros), we used the Arlequin version 2.0 (Schneider et al. 2000) software package to run two separate AMOVAs (Excoffier et al. 1992), one based on the two subspecies and one based on the five zoo groups. Nevertheless, our two AMOVA models showed that sequence variation was predominantly due to variation within subspecies rather than to partitioning into the two studied subspecies (82.48 vs. 17.52%, P = 0.02248, first AMOVA model) and due to variation within single zoo groups rather than between zoo groups (71.63 vs. 28.37%, P \ 0.00005, second AMOVA model). The present results indicate levels of differentiation between some C. falconeri lineages and modern domestic goats (C. hircus) similar to levels between other wild goat species (i.e., C. aegagrus, C. ibex) and domestic goats (Table 2; cf. Bruford et al. 2003). The basic body pattern of all wild and domestic goats is similar, and moreover, they can freely interbreed in captivity (Manceau et al. 1999). The close gene pool relationships among diverse taxa within the genus Capra and the possibility of (repeated) introgressive hybridization of ancestral or modern populations render the whole group difficult taxonomically (see also Grubb 2005). Our current results suggest that 35.7% of all studied individuals from three zoos are introgressed by domestic goat mtdna. Hybridization of markhor or other species (e.g., C. aegagrus, C. ibex) held in zoos with domestic goats (or wild goats) is plausible; however, it can be speculated that in some cases introgressed wildliving ancestral C. falconeri herds may have been the source populations of captive markhors. The possibility of introgressed animals or whole groups in zoos should be considered when selecting markhors for ex situ breeding programs, with the aim of building up a stock for later reintroduction into the wild. We expect introgression of

224 Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 Table 2 Tamura Nei distances a of wild Capra spp. and captive markhor (C. falconeri) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 [1] [0.028] [0.028] [0.021] [0.025] [0.027] [0.010] [0.009] [0.028] [0.028] [0.009] [0.030] [0.029] [0.047] [0.041] [0.025] [0.031] [0.035] [2] 0.125 [0.000] [0.010] [0.024] [0.030] [0.028] [0.025] [0.027] [0.029] [0.027] [0.027] [0.027] [0.030] [0.035] [0.027] [0.031] [0.034] [3] 0.125 0.000 [0.010] [0.024] [0.030] [0.028] [0.025] [0.027] [0.029] [0.027] [0.027] [0.027] [0.030] [0.035] [0.027] [0.031] [0.034] [4] 0.097 0.029 0.029 [0.022] [0.031] [0.021] [0.019] [0.028] [0.029] [0.020] [0.029] [0.026] [0.030] [0.032] [0.022] [0.025] [0.030] [5] 0.114 0.106 0.106 0.097 [0.024] [0.024] [0.025] [0.025] [0.023] [0.023] [0.022] [0.024] [0.032] [0.028] [0.023] [0.021] [0.028] [6] 0.130 0.147 0.147 0.148 0.114 [0.031] [0.029] [0.009] [0.003] [0.030] [0.008] [0.019] [0.031] [0.033] [0.031] [0.032] [0.030] [7] 0.032 0.135 0.135 0.096 0.114 0.155 [0.008] [0.030] [0.030] [0.005] [0.028] [0.027] [0.039] [0.038] [0.025] [0.028] [0.033] [8] 0.023 0.108 0.108 0.081 0.117 0.142 0.023 [0.029] [0.028] [0.006] [0.029] [0.026] [0.039] [0.038] [0.023] [0.030] [0.034] [9] 0.136 0.128 0.128 0.138 0.115 0.026 0.146 0.139 [0.008] [0.028] [0.005] [0.018] [0.026] [0.031] [0.029] [0.030] [0.025] [10] 0.136 0.142 0.142 0.142 0.109 0.003 0.150 0.137 0.023 [0.029] [0.008] [0.018] [0.030] [0.032] [0.029] [0.031] [0.029] [11] 0.026 0.122 0.122 0.085 0.102 0.142 0.008 0.014 0.133 0.137 [0.027] [0.025] [0.039] [0.036] [0.024] [0.027] [0.031] [12] 0.142 0.132 0.132 0.144 0.101 0.023 0.140 0.143 0.008 0.020 0.128 [0.017] [0.025] [0.030] [0.029] [0.029] [0.024] [13] 0.138 0.119 0.119 0.118 0.105 0.084 0.126 0.119 0.073 0.080 0.114 0.069 [0.028] [0.029] [0.019] [0.024] [0.028] [14] 0.230 0.139 0.139 0.131 0.157 0.152 0.194 0.191 0. 0.147 0.186 0.118 0.130 [0.034] [0.033] [0.035] [0.036] [15] 0.209 0.180 0.180 0.158 0.140 0.175 0.188 0.192 0.164 0.169 0.174 0.158 0.148 0.165 [0.029] [0.026] [0.036] [16] 0.116 0.126 0.126 0.097 0.101 0.140 0. 0.106 0.143 0.134 0.111 0.138 0.079 0.154 0.134 [0.023] [0.028] [17] 0.150 0.141 0.141 0.111 0.096 0.159 0.133 0.141 0.148 0.153 0.126 0.143 0.108 0.171 0.126 0.103 [0.027] [18] 0.179 0.158 0.158 0.148 0.141 0.149 0.166 0.170 0.119 0.143 0.153 0.115 0.131 0.172 0.185 0.129 0.131 Distance values (Tamura and Nei 1993) are given below the diagonal, and standard errors (computed by 1,000-bootstrap replicates) are given in brackets above the diagonal. Specimens: 1 4, C. aegagrus (Bezoar ibex, accession nos. AB004076, AJ317867, AJ317866, AJ317864); 5, C. aegagrus blythi (Sindh ibex, AB110591); 6 12, C. falconeri HVI_CF1-CF7 (captive markhor); 13, C. f. heptneri (Bukharan markhor, AJ317872); 14, C. [ibex] sibirica (Sibirian ibex, AJ317874); 15, C. [ibex] nubiana (Nubian ibex, AJ317871); 16, C. [ibex] caucasica (West Caucasian tur, AJ317875); 17, C. cylindricornis (Daghestan tur, AJ317868); 18, C. cylindricornis (Daghestan tur, AJ317869) a

Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 225 Table 3 Tamura Nei distances a between wild and captive Capra groups Wild Capra spp. b Captive markhor c Wild markhor d Wild Capra spp. 0.015/0.005 0.014/0.008 Captive markhor 0.124/0.016 0.013/0.006 0.010/0.003 Wild markhor 0.111/0.011 0.081/0.002 0.044/0.002 a Distance values (Tamura and Nei 1993) between groups/net between groups are given below the diagonal, and standard errors (computed by 1,000 bootstrap replicates) are given above the diagonal. Distance values for nonintrogressed captive versus wild-living markhors are given in italics b Wild Capra spp.: C. aegagrus (Bezoar ibex, accession nos. AB004076, AJ317867, AJ317866, AJ317864); C. aegagrus blythi (Sindh ibex, AB110591); C. falconeri heptneri (Bukharan markhor, AJ317872); C. [ibex] sibirica (Sibirian ibex, AJ317874); C. [ibex] nubiana (Nubian ibex, AJ317871); C. [ibex] caucasica (West Caucasian tur, AJ317875); C. cylindricornis (Daghestan tur, AJ317868); C. cylindricornis (Daghestan tur, AJ317869) c Captive markhor: C. falconeri HVI_CF1-8 d Wild markhor: C. f. heptneri (Bukharan markhor, AJ317872 and AJ317873) nuclear DNA as well in markhors, but identification of such cases would necessitate information on characteristic nuclear alleles (e.g., at microsatellite loci) or at least frequency estimates of such alleles for pure markhor. Apart from the presence of introgressed markhors among assumed pure animals, one of our AMOVA models revealed that despite relatively small group sizes in zoos, markhors obviously have maintained a relatively high proportion of mtdna variation within breeding groups, as well as no strong drift effect due to breeding in separate zoo groups. This might be the result of frequent transfers (in earlier and/or recent days) of markhor among zoos or breeding groups, and might have also affected the differentiation pattern of lineages in the two subspecies studied. To investigate whether markhor individuals kept in zoos, wildlife parks, or breeding stations are indeed representative genetically for wild-living populations to be useful for liberation programs, noninvasive genetic diversity surveys of wildliving markhor populations based on nuclear markers (e.g., microsatellites) and mtdna should be considered. Acknowledgments For collaboration and help provided in collecting samples we thank Wolfgang Zenker. We also thank Anita Haiden for her extensive laboratory assistance. This work was part of a project funded by the Verein der Freunde des Tiergartens Schönbrunn, granted to Franz Suchentrunk. References Amills M, Capote J, Tomas A, Kelly L, Obexer-Ruff G, Angiolillo A, Sanchez A (2004) Strong phylogeographic relationships among three goat breeds from the Canary Islands. J Dairy Res 71:257 262 Bruford MW, Bradley DG, Luikart G (2003) DNA markers reveal the complexity of livestock domestication. Nat Rev Genet 4:900 910 Chen SY, Su YH, Wu SF, Sha T, Zhang YP (2005) Mitochondrial diversity and phylogeographic structure of Chinese domestic goats. Mol Phylogenet Evol 37:804 814

226 Biochem Genet (2008) 46:216 226 Excoffier L, Smouse PE, Quattro JM (1992) Analysis of molecular variance inferred from metric distances among DNA haplotypes. Application to human mitochondrial DNA restriction data. Genetics 131:479 491 Felsenstein J (1985) Confidence-limits on phylogenies-an approach using the bootstrap. Evolution 39:783 791 Grubb P (2005) Order artiodactyla. In: Wilson DE, Reeder DM (eds) Mammal species of the world a taxonomic and geographic reference, 3rd edn, vol 1. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, pp 637 722 Kocher TD, Thomas WK, Meyer A, Edwards SV, Paabo S, Villablanca FX, Wilson AC (1989) Dynamics of mitochondrial DNA evolution in animals. amplification and sequencing with conserved primers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 86:6196 6200 Kumar S, Tamura K, Nei M (2004) Mega3. Integrated software for molecular evolutionary genetics analysis and sequence alignment. Brief Bioinform 5:150 163 Luikart G, Gielly L, Excoffier L, Vigne JD, Bouvet J, Taberlet P (2001) Multiple maternal origins and weak phylogeographic structure in domestic goats. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 98:5927 5932 Manceau V, Despres L, Bouvet J, Taberlet P (1999) Systematics of the genus Capra inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Mol Phylogenet Evol 13:504 510 Mannen H, Nagata Y, Tsuji S (2001) Mitochondrial DNA reveal that domestic goats (Capra hircus) are genetically affected by two subspecies of bezoar (Capra aegagurus). Biochem Genet 39:145 154 Pokoradi J (2005) Captive rearing of Capra falconeri heptneri. Caprinae newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Caprinae Specialist Group, 4 Posada D, Crandall KA (1998) Modeltest testing the model of DNA substitution. Bioinformatics 17:817 818 Rosser AM, Tareen N, Leader-Williams N (2005) The precautionary principle, uncertainty and trophy hunting. A review of the Torghar population of central Asian markhor Capra falconeri. In: Dickson B, Cooney R (eds) Biodiversity and the precautionary principle. Risk, uncertainty, and practice in conservation and sustainable use. Earthscan, Sterling, pp 55 72 Schneider S, Roessli D, Excoffier L (2000) Arelquin ver. 2.000. A software for population genetics data analysis. Genetics and Biometry Laboratory, University of Geneva, Switzerland Shackelton DM (1997) Wild sheep and goats and their relatives. Status survey and conservation action plan for Caprinae. IUCN/SSC Caprinae Specialists Group, IUCN, Gland, Switzerland Sultana S, Mannen H (2004) Polymorphism and evolutionary profile of mitochondrial DNA control region inferred from the sequences of Pakistani goats. Anim Sci J 75:303 309 Sultana S, Mannen H, Tsuji S (2003) Mitochondrial DNA diversity of Pakistani goats. Anim Genet 34:417 421 Swofford DL (2001) PAUP: phylogeny analysis using parsimony (and other methods). Version 4.02b. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA Takada T, Kikkawa Y, Yonekawa H, Kawakami S, Amano T (1997). Bezoar (Capra aegagrus) isa matriarchal candidate for ancestor of domestic goat (Capra hircus). Evidence from the mitochondrial DNA diversity. Biochem Genet 35:315 326 Tamura K, Nei M (1993) Estimation of the number of nucleotide substitutions in the control region of mitochondrial DNA in humans and chimpanzees. Mol Biol Evol 10:512 526 Thompson JD, Gibson TJ, Plewniak F, Jeanmougin F, Higgins DG (1997) The ClustalX windows interface. flexible strategies for multiple sequence alignment aided by quality analysis tools. Nucleic Acids Res 24:4876 4882 Virk AT (2000) Integrating wildlife conservation with community-based development in northern areas, Pakistan. Caprinae newsletter of the IUCN/SSC Caprinae Specialist Group, 8 9 Wagner JA (1836 1855). Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Beschreibungen. Erlangen, Germany Weinberg PI, Valdez R., Fedosenko AK (1997) Status of the Heptneŕs Markhor (Capra falconeri heptneri) in Turkmenistan. J Mammal 78:826 829