Genetic structure and phylogenetic relations of cinereous vulture (Aegypius monachus) populations in Turkey

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

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

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2018

Öğrenci: EMEL ÇAKMAK

Danışman: CEMAL CAN BİLGİN

Özet:

Throughout the world, vulture populations have suffered threatening declines in numbers in recent years. The Cinereous Vulture (Aegypius monachus) is a highly philopatric scavenger that ranges across southern Europe and the central Asian plateau. Turkey holds the second most numerous population in the Western Palearctic but there has been no research on the genetic structure of this particular population. In the present study, we describe the current genetic status of the Turkish population using both mitochondrial cytochrome b sequences and nuclear microsatellite markers. Although, mitochondrial (mt) DNA revealed extremely low genetic variability (haplotype diversity), nuclear diversity based on allelic richness and expected heterozygosity demonstrated moderate levels of genetic variation. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that the Turkish lineage, together with the Caucasus population, occupies an intermediate position between European (Balkan and Iberian) and Central Asian (Mongolian) lineages. We could not detect any significant differentiation between the four sub-populations (Çatacık, Tandır, Türkmenbaba and Köroğlu), which suggests that the sampled 81 individuals originated from a single large, panmictic population. Additionally, we observed evidence of a recent bottleneck in the Turkish populations and a low effective population size of 112 (95% CI 74–201). A population viability analysis using VORTEX revealed predicted population dynamics. These findings suggest that conservation strategies should be developed for treating Turkish populations as a single management unit.