Abstract
The sable (Martes zibellina L.) range extends from the western slopes of the Ural Mountains to the Far East. Sable has a complex intraspecific structure; geographic populations differ in a number of morphological traits. Unregulated sable hunting for several centuries, forest fires and industrialization of Siberia led to a sharp decline in the species’ population size and the fragmentation of its habitat by the beginning of the twentieth century. In some regions of Siberia, the species was almost completely exterminated. To restore the sable population, along with a complete ban on hunting, large-scale sable reintroductions were made in the middle of the twentieth century. About 11.7–11.8 thousand animals were brought from the Baikal-Patom region of the Baikal Mountain Country to Western and Eastern Siberia. Reintroduced sables survived in the new territories and formed naturalized populations. We studied the allele frequency distribution of 15 microsatellite loci of 474 sable specimens from 14 native and six naturalized sable populations in the Central Siberian Plateau and adjacent territories. The results of the analysis of genetic diversity, differentiation and population structure indicate the presence of five clusters in the study area, four of which are formed by native populations and one that includes a native population from the Patom donor area and all six naturalized populations. Both large-scale reintroductions and a complete ban on hunting have contributed to the restoration of sable populations in Siberia, which have become a continuous sable range. An analysis of genetic structure in historical and geographic context can be useful in studying the effects of introduction or reintroduction when considering the stages of introduction-naturalization-invasion continuum.
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Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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We are grateful to all participants who provided muscle tissue and pieces from sable pelts.
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The research was conducted with the help of the Russian Science Foundation grant 23–26-00233.
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PAF: Execution of experiments and bioinformatics; ESZ: Data collection, analysis and interpretation; PVK: Data collection, analysis and interpretation; DVP: Discussion and revision of ideas during the manuscript preparation; AVD: Discussion and revision of ideas during the manuscript preparation; AAO: Data collection, execution of experiments and bioinformatics; GRS: Bioinformatics and statistical analysis; JW: Bioinformatics; MMS: Data analysis and writing the first draft of the manuscript; NNZ: Discussion and revision of ideas during the manuscript preparation; YAS: Discussion and revision of ideas during the manuscript preparation. LES: Data analysis, interpretation, principal revision of the first draft and writing the final version of the manuscript; SNK: Study conceptualization and design, project administration and supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Filimonov, P.A., Zakharov, E.S., Kochkarev, P.V. et al. Genetic structure of native and naturalized populations of sable (Martes zibellina L.) of the Central Siberian Plateau and adjacent territories. Biol Invasions (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-024-03299-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-024-03299-1