Conservation Genetics Of The Hume’s Pheasant Syrmaticus Humiae Under Fragmental Habitats

The Hume’s pheasant (Syrmaticus humiae) is a rare and endangered species of pheasants in the world that used to be widely distributed in the mountain areas of north-eastern India, north and west Myanmar, south-west China and north Thailand. Due to human disturbance, poaching and habitat loss, the wild population size of this species has been decreasing dramatically in rencent years. Therefore, it was listed as a globally near-threatened species by IUCN and ranked as Grade I National Protected Wildlife in China and was also listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Specicies(CITES).In this study,73Hume’s pheasant individual samples grouped into four geographical populations were collected from Longlin, Xilin, Leye, Tiane and Luodian counties crossed the Nanpanjiang river and red river valleys. Both mitochondrial control region (mtDNA D-loop) and microsatellite DNA markers were used to examine genetic diversity and genetic structure of the four geographical populations of S. humiae. These results will be contributed to provide important informations for reasonsable conservation and management strategies to devise for this bird species. The main results in this study are as follows:Firstly, we described the novel set of twelve polymorphic microsatellite loci isolated from the Hume’s pheasant genomic DNA using an enrichment protocol which is able to enrich AC and AG motifs. All the loci were screened from a group of16individuals sampled from Tiane County in Guangxi province. The results indicated that each locus showed a relatively high polymorphism (ranged from4to13alleles). The observed (Ho) and expected (He) heterozygosity values were ranged from0.2to0.938and from0.303to0.925, respectively. However, four loci (ShuI-35, ShuI-62, ShuI-51and ShuI-15) showed deviation from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (HWE) and no linkage disequilibrium was found between pairs of loci. These polymorphic microsatellite loci will be useful tools in studies of the conservation genetics of S. humiae and other species of this genus.Secondly, we investigated the population genetic structure of S. humiae using1143bp of mitochondrial DNA control region amplfied from73individuals sampled from TLX, LX, LD and PJ populations.39haplotypes were defined based on58 variable sites. The haplotype diversity (h) of the four populations was0.812、0.926、0.722and0.905, and the nucleotied diversity (ο) was0.00516、0.0075、0.00463and0.01, respectively. For the microsatellite data, the expected heterozygosity (He) and observed heterozygosity (Ho) ranged from0.75to0.79and from0.72to0.83, respectively. Both results of mt DNA control region and microsatellite DNA indicated that S. humiae expressed relatively high genetic diversities in each geographic population.Thirdly, the results of phylogenetic analyses showed that the haplotypes derived from the four putative populations did not cluster into separate geographic branches. A PCA plot of nuclear genetic variation also showed that the dividuals sampled from the four putative populations did not cluster into separate geographic branches. Moreover, the result based on the STRUCTURE also showed the four putative populations did not cluster into separate geographic branches too.Fourthly, results of the mismatch distribution and neutrality test (Fu’s Fs=-0.971, P>0.05) and goodness of fit test (SSD=0.78094, P<0.01) analyses indicated the four populations did not experience a range expansion over the course of their histories. The results of population bottleneck effect test indicated that all populations did not experience recent bottleneck effect under two-phase mutational (TPM) models.Further, using hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) based on mitochondrial DNA data. The results indicated that most molecular variances were originated from different individuals within populations (98.03%), whereas variances among populations (1.97%) were small. These results further indicated that gene flow (Nm) was frequently taken place among populations.The hierarchical analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) based on microsatellite DNA data showed that variances among populations were only reached at1.97%. The gene flow between TLX and LX,between TLX and LD, between TLX and PJ, between Lx and LD, between Lx and PJ are4.11,4.61,8.35,11.36,9.72, respecively. The mating behaviour between populations took place at randomLy.Moreover, results of both mtDNA data and microsatellite DNA data sampled from the Hume’s pheasan indicated that no evidence was found that the national highway No.323, Nanpangjiang river and Red river were as to be geographical barriers to gene flow. The results further demonstrated that there are high levels of gene flow between the four populations. Therefore, we suggested that the four populations of Hume’s pheasan should be taken as one management unit (MU).Fifthly, through the questionnaire, the survey found that the people’s consciousness of wildlife protection is weak. Hunting are the main factors caused the Hume’s pheasant population decrease. In order to better protect the Hume’s pheasant, we suggest the following:(1) It is very important to promote wildlife conservation and legal sence through the education of public science popularization.(2) Our government shoud enhance a directive calling for increased protection of wild tigers through habitat management, public education and stronger law enforcement action.(3) Speed up the development and construction the economy in the remote mountainous areas, change their habits and mode of cultivation to reduce the destruction of wildlife habitat.