Mitochondrial-Dna Polymorphism, Phylogeography, And Conservation Genetics Of The Brown Bear Ursus-Arctos In Europe

• Main Authors: Taberlet, P., Bouvet, J.
• Other Authors: Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Université Savoie Mont Blanc (USMB Université de Savoie Université de Chambéry )-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 1994
• Subjects: RESTRICTION ENDONUCLEASES; GEOGRAPHIC POPULATIONS; SEQUENCE RELATEDNESS; NATURAL-POPULATIONS; EVOLUTION; SYSTEMATICS; REGION; PCR; [SDE.BE]Environmental Sciences/Biodiversity and Ecology; [SDV.BID]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity; [SDV.EE]Life Sciences [q-bio]/Ecology; environment; Ursus arctos
• Online Access: https://hal.science/halsde-00281059

Times Cited: 118 International audience Some small European populations of the brown bear (Ursus arctos) are threatened by of extinction in the near future. The reinforcement of these populations with bears from other regions might provide a solution to their future survival. However, before any population transfer, the different conservation units must be identified. The phylogeographic approach has been advocated for this purpose. The different European populations were assayed for mitochondrial (mt) DNA polymorphism. A remarkable degree of concordance was found between the geographic distribution and the mtDNA haplotypes. Two clearly distinct lineages differing by more than 7 % in mtDNA control region sequences were found and, furthermore, the western lineage appears to be organized into two clades which correspond to two different ancestral refugia. The potential conservation units can be deduced from these results, and a management policy can consequently be inferred. This study clearly demonstrates the relevance of the molecular phylogeographic approach to the identification of conservation units.