Sequence variation at two mitochondrial genes in the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population of Sri Lanka

Vandebona, Himesha; Goonesekere, Nalin C. W.; Tiedemann, Ralph; Ratnasooriya, W.D.; Gunasekera, M.B.

doi:10.1078/1616-5047-00030

Cited by 7 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Molecular techniques have been used to evaluate the diversity of Asian elephants across or within populations. Maternal inherited mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) (Fernando and Lande 2000;Fernando et al , 2003Fleischer et al 2001;Vandebona et al 2002;Vidya and Sukumar 2005;Vidya et al 2005aVidya et al , b, 2007Fickel et al 2007) revealed several haplotypes, which belong to two haplogroups or clades. In Thailand, eight haplotypes from two clades were found in 82 captive elephants (Lertwatcharasarakul et al 2003), while mtDNA control region sequences from 78 captive elephants represented 20 haplotypes (Fickel et al 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Genetic assessment of captive elephant (Elephas maximus) populations in Thailand

et al. 2009

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The genetic diversity and population structure of 136 captive Thai elephants (Elephas maximus) with known region of origin were investigated by analysis of 14 highly polymorphic microsatellite loci. We did not detect significant indications of inbreeding and only a low differentiation of elephants from different regions. This is probably explained by the combined effects of isolation by distance and exchange between different regions or between captive and wild elephant populations. Estimates of effective population sizes were in the range of 90-240 individuals, which emphasizes the necessity to guard against inbreeding as caused by the current use of a restricted number of breeding bulls.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Genetic assessment of captive elephant (Elephas maximus) populations in Thailand

et al. 2009

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“…The Asian elephant ( Elephas maximus ) has three recognized subspecies: Elephas maximus maximus from Sri Lanka, Elephas maximus indicus from the Asian mainland, and Elephas maximus sumatranus from the Sumatran island of Indonesia (Vandebona, Goonesekere, Tiedemann, Ratnasooriyac, & Gunasekeraa, 2002). However, molecular genetic studies provide little evidence to support differentiation between the Sri Lankan and Asian mainland elephants because they both share mitochondrial DNA haplotypes and so should not be considered as distinct subspecies (Vandebona et al., 2002). An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Asian elephants are distributed across 13 Asian countries (Nijman, 2014; Sukumar, 2006), including Thailand, which has the second largest elephant habitat (47,864 km 2 ) and a healthy wild population of 3,000 to 3,500 elephants.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genetic Diversity and Variation in Captive Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Thailand

Kriangwanich

Nganvongpanit

Buddhachat

et al. 2018

Tropical Conservation Science

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Numbers of wild Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) have been decreasing gradually throughout Asia due primarily to human activities, such as poaching, and habitat encroachment and destruction that lead to human–elephant conflict. Sustainability problems exist in captive populations as well, where morbidity and mortality rates are high and reproduction is low. Determining the genetic diversity of these populations is essential for conservation and sustainable utilization efforts. Intersimple sequence repeat markers were used to assess the genetic variation and differentiation in 97 captive Asian elephants from seven elephant camps in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The nine primers chosen for the analysis revealed 88 bands in male and 115 bands in female elephants, of which 37 (42.05%) and 83 (63.64%) were polymorphic, respectively. Shannon’s index information (I = 2.415 ± 0.054) and expected heterozygosity (He = 0.892 ± 0.008) indicated high species-level genetic diversity. The fixation index (Fst) was −0.130 ± 0.016, demonstrating there was no genetic subdivision between populations. A cluster analysis was performed using Unweight Pair-Group Method with Arithmetic Mean and dendrograms, which illustrated genetic relationships among captive Asian elephants that included 2 main clusters across the seven camps and 27 clusters for the 97 individual elephants. This high variability may be due to the different origins of these individuals, including originating from other Asian countries. Thus, this study showed that intersimple sequence repeat marker analysis was effective in demonstrating high genetic diversity among captive Asian elephants in Chiang Mai province and found cluster differences that could be used to guide breeding management to decrease the risk of inbreeding among Asian elephant groups.

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“…The determination and designation of specific and subspecific status of each elephant in captivity is a genetic aspect that needs to be addressed. Most work in the literature suggest that the Sri Lankan and Asian mainland populations are not different (Hartl et al, 1996;Fleischer et al, 2001;Vandebona et al, 2002) and fall in the Elephas maximus maximus subspecies. The elephants on Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula are recognized as a second subspecies, Elephas maximus sumatranus.…”

Section: Genetic Management In the Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Population management of zoo elephants

Wiese

Willis

2006

International Zoo Yearbook

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In Europe and North America the majority of Asian elephant Elephas maximus populations are not self‐sustaining nor is the African elephant Loxodonta africana population in North America. About 75% of Asian elephants in North America are wild‐caught or from semi‐wild logging camps and are presumed to be unrelated to the other Asian elephants in captivity. The genetic potential of these populations is healthy and will remain so if the demographic constraints impinging on them can be resolved. In order to become self‐sustaining the primary goal is to increase birth rates in the population, with a secondary goal of reducing infant‐mortality rates. As populations of elephants in zoos metamorphose from those maintained by importation to self‐sustaining groups maintained by captive breeding, there will be an increase in the number of bull elephants to be managed. This will require a significant change in elephant‐management practices.

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Sequence variation at two mitochondrial genes in the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) population of Sri Lanka

Cited by 7 publications

References 17 publications

Genetic assessment of captive elephant (Elephas maximus) populations in Thailand

Genetic assessment of captive elephant (Elephas maximus) populations in Thailand

Genetic Diversity and Variation in Captive Asian Elephants (Elephas maximus) in Thailand

Population management of zoo elephants

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