Comparison of the genetic variation in Svalbard and Norwegian reindeer

• Published in: Canadian Journal of Zoology
• Main Author: Røed, K. H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1985
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Svalbard; Norway; Northern Norway; Rangifer tarandus; Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus; svalbard reindeer
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/z85-300; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/z85-300

Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis was used to score for genetic variation in 35 loci in Svalbard reindeer, Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus, and in reindeer, Rangifer tarandus tarandus, from two localities in northern Norway. In R. t. platyrhynchus the proportion of polymorphic loci was 0.114 and the average heterozygosite was 0.030. In R. t. tarandus the proportion of polymorphic loci was 0.171–0.286 and the average heterozygosity was 0.043–0.045. Excluding the variability in the locus coding for transferrin from calculations reduced the average heterozygosity to 0.020 in R. t. platyrhynchus and to 0.021–0.025 in R. t. tarandus, suggesting that the amount of genetic variation in R. t. platyrhynchus is not very different from that in R. t. tarandus. Unique alleles in the loci coding for transferrin and acid phosphatase for the two subspecies indicate that there has been no interbreeding in recent time. The genetic distance between the two subspecies is within the same range as between subspecies of other organisms. Evolutionary divergence time based on the protein data indicates that either the divergence between these subspecies was initiated a very long time ago or R. t. platyrhynchus originates from other subspecies of reindeer.