Pre-Historic and Recent Vicariance Events Shape Genetic Structure and Diversity in Endangered Lion-Tailed Macaque in the Western Ghats: Implications for Conservation

Muthuvarmadam S Ram; Minal Marne; Ajay Gaur; Honnavalli N Kumara; Mewa Singh; Ajith Kumar; Govindhaswamy Umapathy

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142597

Pre-Historic and Recent Vicariance Events Shape Genetic Structure and Diversity in Endangered Lion-Tailed Macaque in the Western Ghats: Implications for Conservation

PLoS One. 2015 Nov 11;10(11):e0142597. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0142597. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Muthuvarmadam S Ram¹, Minal Marne¹, Ajay Gaur¹, Honnavalli N Kumara², Mewa Singh³, Ajith Kumar⁴, Govindhaswamy Umapathy¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory for the Conservation of Endangered Species, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Uppal Road, Hyderabad, 500007, India.
² Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, 641108, India.
³ Biopsychology Laboratory, and Institution of Excellence, University of Mysore, Mysore, 570006, India.
⁴ Wildlife Conservation Society-India, Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore, 560070, India.

Abstract

Genetic isolation of populations is a potent force that helps shape the course of evolution. However, small populations in isolation, especially in fragmented landscapes, are known to lose genetic variability, suffer from inbreeding depression and become genetically differentiated among themselves. In this study, we assessed the genetic diversity of lion-tailed macaques (Macaca silenus) inhabiting the fragmented landscape of Anamalai hills and examined the genetic structure of the species across its distributional range in the Western Ghats. We sequenced around 900 bases of DNA covering two mitochondrial regions-hypervariable region-I and partial mitochondrial cytochrome b-from individuals sampled both from wild and captivity, constructed and dated phylogenetic trees. We found that the lion-tailed macaque troops in the isolated forest patches in Anamalai hills have depleted mitochondrial DNA diversity compared to troops in larger and continuous forests. Our results also revealed an ancient divergence in the lion-tailed macaque into two distinct populations across the Palghat gap, dating to 2.11 million years ago. In light of our findings, we make a few suggestions on the management of wild and captive populations.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Bayes Theorem
Biodiversity
Biological Evolution
Cytochromes b / genetics
DNA, Mitochondrial / genetics*
Ecosystem*
Endangered Species*
Evolution, Molecular
Genetic Variation
Geography
Haplotypes
India
Likelihood Functions
Macaca / genetics*
Molecular Sequence Data
Phylogeny
Sequence Analysis, DNA

Substances

DNA, Mitochondrial
Cytochromes b

Associated data

GENBANK/KR265209
GENBANK/KR265210
GENBANK/KR265211
GENBANK/KR265212
GENBANK/KR265213
GENBANK/KR265214
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GENBANK/KR265225
GENBANK/KR265226
GENBANK/KR265227
GENBANK/KR265228
GENBANK/KR265229
GENBANK/KR265230
GENBANK/KR265231
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GENBANK/KR265233
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GENBANK/KR265235
GENBANK/KR265236
GENBANK/KR265237
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GENBANK/KR265248
GENBANK/KR265249
GENBANK/KR265250
GENBANK/KR265251
GENBANK/KR265252
GENBANK/KR265253

Grants and funding

This work was support by the Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India, and the Central Zoo Authority of India, Government of India.