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Mitochondrial DNA diversity of the vulnerable Chinese Egret (Egretta eulophotes) from China

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Abstract

The genetic diversity and population structure of the vulnerable Chinese Egret (Egretta eulophotes) were surveyed in the present study from three archipelagoes that cover the most southerly to the very northerly parts of the Chinese distribution range of this species, using a 433-bp fragment of the mitochondrial control region (CR). Among 90 individual samples, 31 different haplotypes were defined by 30 polymorphic sites. Overall haplotype diversity, nucleotide diversity and mean sequence divergence (p-distance) of this egret were 0.920, 0.0088 and 1.11%, respectively. NJ tree and parsimony network for the CR haplotypes of the Chinese Egret showed little genetic structure, and analysis of molecular variance indicated low but significant genetic differentiation (haplotype-based ΦST = 0.03267, P < 0.05 and distance-based ΦST = 0.04194, P < 0.05) among populations. The significant Fu’s F S tests (Fu’s F S = −16.946, P < 0.01) and mismatch distribution analysis (τ = 4.463, SSD = 0.0081, P = 0.12) suggested that the low genetic differentiation and little geographical structure of the genetic differentiation might be explained by the population expansion. The Mantel test (haplotype-based F ST, r = 0.639, P = 0.34 and distance-based F ST, r = 0.947, P = 0.15) suggest that the significant genetic differentiation among populations was likely due to isolation by distance.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Lin Qingxian, Wei Guoan and Lei Fumin who helped collect some samples for this study. The first and the second authors of this paper have equal contributions to the work. This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant code 30970380 and 40876077), by the Fujian Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant code 2009J01195 and 2008S0007) and by the Program for Innovative Research Team in Science and Technology in Fujian Province University.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Coast and Wetland Ecosystems, School of Life Sciences, Xiamen University, 361005, Xiamen, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoping Zhou, Wenzhen Fang & Xiaolin Chen

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  1. Xiaoping Zhou
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  2. Wenzhen Fang
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  3. Xiaolin Chen
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Correspondence to Wenzhen Fang or Xiaolin Chen.

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Communicated by M. Wink.

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Zhou, X., Fang, W. & Chen, X. Mitochondrial DNA diversity of the vulnerable Chinese Egret (Egretta eulophotes) from China. J Ornithol 151, 409–414 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-009-0470-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-009-0470-7

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