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Genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis of blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) in southern India

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Abstract

Blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) is a threatened species endemic to the Indian subcontinent. Many populations of blackbuck are found in southern India. Populations of blackbuck are negatively affected in many places for various reasons, such as habitat destruction and poaching. Their range decreased sharply during the 20th century. There is very limited information available on the population dynamics of blackbuck in southern India. For the phylogenetic and genetic diversity analyses of blackbuck populations among different distribution ranges in southern India, we sequenced mt DNA of cytochrome b (Cyt b) for 120, cytochrome c oxidase subunit-1 (COI) for 137 and the control region (CR) for 137 fecal pellets from eleven different locations in southern India. We analyzed the genetic structure of three mitochondrial markers, the CR, Cyt b and the COI region, separately and in a combined dataset. The haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity of CR were 0.969 and 0.047, respectively, and were higher than those of Cyt b and COI. A Bayesian phylogeny and an MJ network based on the CR and combined dataset (105 sequences) signified several distinct haplotype clusters within blackbuck, whereas no clusters were identified with the Cyt b and COI phylogenetic analyses. The analysis of molecular variance of the combined data set revealed 52.46% genetic variation within the population. Mismatch distribution analysis revealed that blackbuck populations underwent complex changes with analysis of the combined dataset in each population and analysis of each marker separately in the overall population. The results provide evidence that blackbuck in different geographic locations has a distinct population structure due to habitat fragmentation after the formation of the Western and Eastern Ghats.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our Director, the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) for providing financial support and necessary facilities. We sincerely acknowledge our Officer-in-Charge Dr. K. A. Subramanian, Southern Regional Centre, Zoological Survey of India, Chennai for their support and encouragement. We thank the PCCF, (Wildlife) and APCCF of Tamil Nadu, Chennai Zoo, Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for permission to collect samples.

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Financial support was provided by our Director, the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

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  1. Zoological Survey of India, Southern Regional Centre, 130, Santhome High Road, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 600028, India

    Ranjana Bhaskar, Praveen Kanaparthi & Rengasamy Sakthivel

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  1. Ranjana Bhaskar
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Correspondence to Ranjana Bhaskar.

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Bhaskar, R., Kanaparthi, P. & Sakthivel, R. Genetic diversity and phylogenetic analysis of blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) in southern India. Mol Biol Rep 48, 1255–1268 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-021-06180-9

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