Genetic Bottlenecks of the Wild Chinese Giant Salamander in Karst Caves

Jie WANGHongxing ZHANGFeng XIEGang WEIJianping JIANG

Chengdu Institute of Biology,Chinese Academy of SciencesShaanxi Institute of ZoologyGuiyang University

摘要：The rarity of limestone cave species due to habitat degradation makes them of special interest in conservation biology.The wild Chinese Giant Salamander Andrias davidianus,an evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered species,are nearly all obligate into living in inaccessible mountain caves now.We detected that only 14–29 breeders,with the effective population size of 9–25（5–44 of 95% confidence interval）,were in each of three caves,through genotyping 20 microsatellite loci on larvae that were flushed out of caves.Both heterzygosity excess and M（ratios of allele number to allele size range） tests indicated severe genetic bottlenecks among populations.Both mitochondrial,with only one or two haplotypes of D-loop region（770–771bp） in each population,and nuclear genetic structure showed clear divergence between populations.Considering the long life history,small population size,and genetic differentiationof the Chinese Giant Salamander,putting an end to poaching and recovering the karst ecosystem instead of releasing may be the sole measures to save this severely threated species.

基金资助：

supported by National Key Programme of Research and Development （Ministry of Science and Technology,2016YFC0503200）； NSFC （31570391,31200411,31360144 ）； Science and Technology Department of Sichuan Province （2012JY0101）； Chinese Academy of Sciences （Y3C3011100）.；