Genetic comparison of Altai and Gobi argali sheep (Ovis ammon) populations using mitochondrial and microsatellite markers: Implication on conservation

Abstract

Argali sheep is an ungulate, which inhabits the north, west, south and central regions of Mongolia. There are two major populations (Altai and Gobi) in Mongolia, but their taxonomic classification as subspecies is often disputed among researchers. Furthermore, there is no recent study about the population genetic structure of argali sheep in Mongolia. In the present study, we have investigated genetic diversity and difference between Altai and Gobi argali populations using mitochondrial control region hyper variable segment (HVS) sequence (598bp) and 3 microsatellite markers. Mitochondrial HVS haplotype analysis showed high haplotype diversity (0.982±0.012) and low nucleotide diversity (0.02589). In microsatellite analysis, total of 9 alleles were found across all loci while mean Ho were 0.59±0.13 for Altai and 0.53±0.1 for Gobi populations, indicating low allelic diversity with moderate heterozygosity. Neighbor-joining tree separated haplotypes into two clusters, Altai and Gobi population, implying distinct genetic difference between the two subspecies. Additionally, Pairwise FST and Kimura-2 parameter showed 0.127 and 0.0413±0.0068, respectively. These genetic distance analyses hinted genetic difference between Altai and Gobi populations are in subspecies level. In summary, mitochondrial HVS and microsatellite analysis demonstrated that Altai and Gobi populations had low genetic diversity but might be genetically distinct from each other in subspecies level, suggesting conservation should be separately managed.

Genome-Wide Insights into Intraspecific Taxonomy and Genetic Diversity of Argali (Ovis ammon)

“…In the study of the mitochondrial control region and 14 microsatellite loci of argali from the Altai Mountains, Hangay Mountains and eastern Gobi Desert, Feng et al [25] indicated genetic differentiation among these groups. Using mitochondrial control region hypervariable segment sequence (598 bp) and three microsatellite markers Delgerzul et al [27] stated that the genetic difference between Altai and Gobi populations was at the subspecies level. The results of our work agree with the study of Tserenbataa et al [24], where using the ND5 gene of mitochondrial DNA, the authors revealed low genetic differentiation and a high level of gene flow among populations and concluded that O. a. ammon and O. a. darwini should be considered a single subspecies.…”

“…Different mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers were used to clarify phylogenetic relationships in ungulate species [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Until now, molecular genetic studies of argali have been carried out using mitochondrial DNA [23,24] and microsatellites [25][26][27].…”