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Genetic diversity and molecular differentiation of Chinese toad based on microsatellite markers

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Abstract

Genetic diversity and population structure of 9 populations of Bufo gargarizans with total 111 samples in China were assessed using seven microsatellite loci. The analysed microsatellite markers produced 161 alleles, varied from 9 to 38 alleles each locus. The number of alleles per population per locus ranged from 4.43 to 10.29. Polymorphic information content showed that all seven loci were highly informative (mean = 0.810 ± 0.071). The average observed heterozygosity was less than the expected (0.353 ± 0.051 and 0.828 ± 0.067, respectively). All tested populations gave significant departures from Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium. Genetic differentiation among the populations was considerably high with the overall and pairwise F ST values (mean = 0.160 ± 0.039), and showed fairly high level of inbreeding (indicated by a mean F IS value of 0.504 ± 0.051) and global heterozygote deficit. In comparison to other amphibian studies; however, our results suggested that the level of genetic structuring in B. gargarizans was relatively low in the geographical scale of the study area. Interestingly, the speculated population bottleneck was found to be absent and the analyses provide only weak evidence for a recent contraction in size even though there was severe inbreeding (indicated by the F IS value) in the Chinese toad populations.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the following individuals and institutions for generously providing us with samples: Dao-De Yang, Central South Forestry University; Bing-Wan Liu, Northeast Forestry University; Bao-Rong Geng, Fujian Normal University; Jian-Ping Jiang, Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Hong-Ying Sun, Nanjing Normal University; Yun-Zhi Yan and Qian Wang, Anhui Normal University. This work was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Foundation for Excellent Youth in Anhui Province and Key Laboratory of Biotic Environment and Ecological safety in Anhui Province.

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  1. College of Life Sciences, and Key Laboratory for Conservation and Exploitation of Biological Resource in Anhui Province, Anhui Normal University, 241000, Wuhu, China

    Xiao-Bing Wu & Yu-Ling Hu

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  1. Xiao-Bing Wu
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  2. Yu-Ling Hu
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Correspondence to Xiao-Bing Wu.

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Wu, XB., Hu, YL. Genetic diversity and molecular differentiation of Chinese toad based on microsatellite markers. Mol Biol Rep 37, 2379–2386 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-009-9745-6

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