Abstract
Marmots are large ground squirrels, and 14 species have been reported in the world, including four species of marmots (Himalayan marmot, Tarbagan marmot, gray marmot and long-tailed marmot) living in China. Although these biological resources are abundant in China, information regarding their genetic features is lacking, hampering further study regarding them. The aims of this research were to evaluate genetic variations of four species of Chinese wild marmots, and analyzed kinship of these marmot populations. In the current study, we collected samples of four species of Chinese wild marmot and analyzed the effective allele number, gene diversity, the Shannon index, and polymorphism information to evaluate genetic variations using 13 microsatellite loci. Based on Nei’s genetic distance using the unweighted pair group method, we constructed a dendrogram to analyze the population kinship. We determined that all four Chinese marmot species had high genetic polymorphisms and departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The Chinese marmots to be divided into two large groups: Himalayan marmot was independent group. Tarbagan marmot, gray marmot and long-tailed marmot were others; Tarbagan marmot and gray marmot showed a close kinship with each other, but long-tailed marmot did not have a close relationship with the other species. The high polymorphisms and the kinship of Chinese marmot populations were correlated with geographical terrain of their habitat. Himalayan marmot was characterized as living in unique alpine meadows in Qinghai-Tibet plateau and was affected by terrain; however, Tarbagan marmot, gray marmot and long-tailed marmot were characterized as living in grassland or alpine grassland and were not affected by terrain. Genetic features of Chinese wild marmots were investigated in this study. This may give using information regarding protection of Chinese wild marmot resource and further application of biomedical research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Botstein D., White R.L., Skolnick M. & Davis R.W. 1980. Construction of a genetic linkage map in man using restriction fragment length polymorphisms. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 32(3): 314–331. PMID: 6247908
Brandler O.V., Nikolsky A.A. & Kolesnikov V.V. 2010. Spatial distribution of Marmota baibacin and M. sibirica (Marmota, Sciuridae, Rodentia) in a zone of sympatry in Mongolian Altai: Bioacoustic analysis. Izv. Akad. Nauk. Ser. Biol. 3: 380–384. PMID: 20583623
Brant J.B., Gustavo C.A. & Peter M.G. 1991. Fast and sensitive silver staining of DNA in polyacrylamide gels. Anal. Biochem. 196(1): 80–83. DOI: 10.1016/0003-2697(91)90120-I
Caridini A., Hoffmann R.S. & Thorington R.W. 2005. Morphological evolution in marmot (Rodentia, Sciuridae): size and shape of the dorsal and lateral surfaces of the cranium. J. Zool. Sys. Evol. Res. 43: 258–268. DOI: 10.1111/j.1439-0469.2005.00316.258-268
Edwards A., Civitello H., Hammond H.A. & Caskey C.T. 1991. DNA typing and genetic mapping will a trimeric and tetrameric tandem repeats. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 49(4): 746–756. PMID: 1683171
Fan W. 2007. Effect of ketamine hydrochloride on braking anesthesia of Himalayan marmot. Chin. J. Zoonoses 23(4): 418.
Goossens B., Chikhi C., Taberlet P., Waits L.D. & Allaine D. 2001. Microsatellite analysis of genetic variation among and within Alpine marmot populations in the French Alps. Mol. Ecol. 10(1): 41–52. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-294X.2001.01192.x
Hanslik S. & Kruckenhauser L. 2000. Microsatellite loci for two European sciurid species (Marmota marmota, Spermophilus citellus). Mol. Ecol. Notes 9(12): 2163–2168. DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-294X.2000.10535.x
Heame C.M., Ghosh S.T. & Yodd J.A. 1992. Microsatellite for linkage analysis of genetic traits. Trends Genet. 8(8): 288–294. DOI: 10.1016/0168-9525(92)90256-4
Huang X.L. 1996. Study of Marmota himalayana as laboratory animal. Chin. J. Lab. Anim. Sci. 6: 70–72.
Kyle C.J., Karels T.J., Clark B., Strobeck C., Hik D.S. & Davis C.S. 2004. Isolation and characterization of microsatellites markers in hoary marmots (Martmota caligata). Mol. Ecol. Notes. 4(4): 749–751. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-8286.2004.00810.x
Li Y., Wang Z., Tao Y., Fan W., Li M., Huang B., Zhao S., Fan J. & Liu E. 2012. Characteristics of Himalayan marmots and their response to an atherogenic diet. Exp. Anim. 61(4): 461–466.
Litt M. & Luty J.A. 1989. A hypervariable microsatellite revealed by in vitro amplication of a dinucleotide repeat within the cardiac muscle actin gene. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 44: 397–401.
Menne S. & Cote P.J. 2007. The woodchuck as an animal model for pathogenesis and therapy of chronic hepatitis B virus infection. World J. Gastroenterol. 13(1): 104–124. PMID: 17206759
Nei M. 1972. Genetic distance between populations. Am Nat. 106(949): 283–292.
Nei M. 1978. Estimation of average heterozygosity and genetic distance from a small number of individuals. Genetics 89(3): 583–590. PMID: 17248844
Peiffer A.K., Florant G.L. & Summers S.A. 2004. Seasonal changes in Akt/PKB phosphorylation and fat cell size inMarmots. FASEB J. 18(4, Suppl. S): A314–A314.
Silva A.D., Luikart G., Allaine D., Gautier P., Taberlet P. & Pompanon F. 2003. Isolation and characterization of microsatellites in European alpine marmots (Marmota marmota). Mol. Ecol. Notes. 3(2): 189–190. DOI: 10.1046/j.1471-8286.2003.00392.x
Tautz, D; Schlötterer C. 1994. SSimple sequences. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 4(6): 832–839. DOI: 10.1016/0959-437X(94)90067-1
Thorington R.W. Jr. & Hoffman R.S. 2005. Family Sciuridae, pp. 754–818. In: Wilson D.E. & Reeder D.M. (eds), Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2000 pp. ISBN: 0801882214, 978-0801882210
Wang Z., Weber J.L., Zhong G. & Tanksley S.D. 1994. Survey of plant short tandem DNA repeats. Theor. Appl. Genet. 88(1): 1–6.
Xu J.H., Wang L.L., Xue H.L., Wang Y.S. & Xu L.X. 2009. Genetic structure of Himalayan marmot (Marmota himalayana) population alongside the Qinghai-Tibet Railway. Acta Ecol. Sin. 29(5): 314–319. DOI: 10.1016/j.chnaes.2009.09.010
Yuan C.Z., Wang J.M., Ma Y.H., Qu X.X., Shang Y.G. & Zhang N.B. 2006. Genetic diversity of indigenous sheep breeds in Shandong province based on microsatellite markers study. Chin. J. Appl. Ecol. 17(8): 1459–1464.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, Y., Wang, Z., Zhang, G. et al. Genetic characterization of four wild species of Chinese marmots using microsatellite markers. Biologia 67, 1013–1017 (2012). https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-012-0088-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/s11756-012-0088-8