Genetic diversity of gazelles (gazella marica and gazella gazella) in southeast Turkey: With a special emphasis on ongoing conservation studies of gazella marica in Turkey


Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Biyolojik Bilimler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2015

Öğrenci: FİKRİYE DİLAN SAATOĞLU

Danışman: İNCİ ZEHRA TOGAN

Özet:

The present study was conducted to confirm the recently suggested taxonomic status of gazelles in Turkey and also to investigate genetic diversity that exists between and within populations of Gazella marica (One from Kızılkuyu State Farm, Şanlıurfa, n=48; one from Erikçe State Farm, Gaziantep, n=25) and Gazella gazella (population from Kırıkhan County, Hatay, n=4). In the frame of the study, partial mtDNA cyt-b sequence (amplified by the primers: L14724, H15149), 17 microsatellite loci (RT1, ETH10, OARFCB304, MM12, BM143, BM757, IDVGA29, BM848, BM4505, BMC1009, INRA40, ETH152, INRABERN172, TGLA122, ILSTS005, CSSM39, CSSM43), two Y-chromosome microsatellite loci (INRA126, UMN0103) and restriction profiles of mtDNA cyt-b region for two restriction enzymes (HinfI, HaeIII), were employed. First, the taxonomic status of the gazelles species in Southeastern Anatolia (Gazelle marica and Gazelle gazella) on the basis of mtDNA cyt-b sequences was confirmed with the newly collected samples (n=27 and n=4, respectively), independently from the previous studies. Additionally, there were no variations detected within populations (n=3). The informativenesses of the microsatellite loci were investigated and 12 microsatellite loci out of 17 (RT1, ETH10, OARFCB304, BM848, BMC1009, INRA40, BM4505, INRABERN172, TGLA122, ILSTS005, BM757 and CSSM43) were found to be promising for the future studies to be carried out in gazelle species. Then, we analyzed the within population diversities by means of effective population sizes and the differentiation of three different gazelle populations by estimating the FST based on microsatellite data. Captive populations (Gazella marica population from Kızılkuyu, n=48; Gazella marica population from Erikçe, n=25) not only showed low effective population sizes (for Kızılkuyu Ne=9.7, for Erikçe Ne= 8.9) but also gave the signals of inbreeding depression due to low birth ratios. Moreover, they diverged from each other: FST=0.04 for Kızılkuyu/Erikçe and they diverged from each other almost significantly; FST= 0.44 and FST= 0.46 for the Kızılkuyu/Hatay and Erikçe/Hatay, respectively and both of these FST values were highly significant. While investigating the degree of admixture levels of the populations, interestingly, possible wild individuals in the sampling groups were detected by the help of Structure analysis. Furthermore, it was shown that the sequence of Y chromosome based microsatellite locus (INRA126, approximately 240 bp long) differentiated Gazella marica and Gazella gazella males. This preliminary Y-chromosome data may serve as a reference point for further studies covering Y-chromosome diversity within and among gazelle species. Finally, using Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) method based on mtDNA cyt-b fragment, observations on the basis of two restriction enzymes (HinfI, HaeIII) suggested that there is an easy and less time consuming method to differentiate the three gazelle species (Gazella marica, Gazella gazella, Gazella subgutturosa). The project was carried out on behalf of Turkish Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs and was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK, project no: KAMAG 109G016).