Genetic Structure And Phylogeography Of Tree Sparrows Populations In Northern China

Tree sparrow(Passer montanus) is a kind of widespread and resident birds which are adaptable and live in almost all kinds of topography in China.However,the studies of tree sparrows’ genetic structure and phylogeography have been rare in our country.In this paper, the genetic structure and phylogeography relationship of 13 tree sparrow populatios in Northern China will be studied aiming to provide scientific basis for the interpretation of basic theory of tree sparrows molecular ecology in China.The analysis of Genetic diversity indicate that tree sparrow populations have rich genetic diversity as the average of 13 populations’ genetic diversity index-Na,Ne,H,Iand PPB are respectively 1.5893,1.1967,0.1254,0.2023 and 58.93%.Genotype analysis shows 97 genetypes are detected from 179 tree sparrows and genotypic diversity(div) and shannon-wiener(shw) in total, within populations and among populations are respectively 0.92 and 1.47, 0.61 and 0.57, 0.34 and 0.61 which means tree sparrows have abundant genotypes and strong genetic adaptability to the environment.The mean of gene flow(Nm) is 1.0855,which shows relatively high level of gene flow among populations. Genetic variation mainly generates within populations(Gst=0.3154). The UPGMA clustering tree shows 13 tree sparrow populations can be didived into 4 clusters and there is no significant correlation between the clustering relationship and geographical locations.AMOVA analysis shows variation within populations(82%) is severer than among populations(18%) which suggests that populations variation mainly generates from variation within populations and the variarion is significant(P<0.05).The AMOVA analysis results is consistent with Gst.Mantel test result shows no significant correlation between genetic distance and geographic distance between tree sparrow populations. The correlation analysis of index of genetic diversity with the latitude,longitude and population density show that there are no significant correlation(P>0.05) between genetic diversity and latitude,longitude and population density in tree sparrow populations from different geographic regions.Phylogenetic analysis shows no clear distribution pattern according to the division of geographical units among 13 populations as they intermix in the phylogenetic trees and clear differentiation between individuals inside the each population showing a certain pedigree relationship. Activities among 13 populations are strong affected by natural barriers,especially mountains.