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. 2018 Dec 5;13(12):e0207662.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207662. eCollection 2018.

High genetic diversity and distinct ancient lineage of Asiatic black bears revealed by non-invasive surveys in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal

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High genetic diversity and distinct ancient lineage of Asiatic black bears revealed by non-invasive surveys in the Annapurna Conservation Area, Nepal

Rabin Kadariya et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Asiatic black bears (Ursus thibetanus) have a widespread distribution in mountain landscapes, and are considered vulnerable globally, but are low-priority species for conservation in Nepal. Habitat fragmentation, illegal hunting, and human-bear conflict are the major threats to Asiatic black bears across their global range. Having an adequate level of genetic variation in a population helps with adapting to rapidly changing environments, and thus is important for the long-term health of bear populations. Accordingly, we conducted non-invasive surveys of bear populations in the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) to elucidate genetic diversity, genetic structure, and the phylogenetic relationship of Asiatic black bears from this region of Nepal to other subspecies. To assess levels of genetic diversity and population genetic structure, we genotyped eight microsatellite loci using 147 samples, identifying 60 individuals in an area of approximately 525 km2. We found that the Asiatic black bear population in the ACA has maintained high levels of genetic diversity (HE = 0.76) as compared to other bear populations from range countries. We did not detect a signature of population substructure among sampling localities and this suggests that animals are moving freely across the landscape within the ACA. We also detected a moderate population size that may increase with the availability of suitable habitat in the ACA, so bear-related conflict should be addressed to ensure the long-term viability of this expanding bear populations. Primers specific to bears were designed to amplify a 675 bp fragment of the mitochondrial control region from the collected samples. Three haplotypes were observed from the entire conservation area. The complete mitochondrial genome (16,771 bp), the first obtained from wild populations of the Himalayan black bear (U. t. laniger), was also sequenced to resolve the phylogenetic relationships of closely related subspecies of Asiatic black bears. The resulting phylogeny indicated that Himalayan black bear populations in Nepal are evolutionary distinct from other known subspecies of Asiatic black bears.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
(A) Distribution range of Himalayan black bears in Nepal (B) Distribution of noninvasive samples with genotyping status and location of hair traps (C) Geographic distribution of three haplotypes in forest habitats of 5 management units. A total of 147 samples were collected from Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA). The grey color represents maximum elevation range (< 4200 m) of Himalayan black bears except Lomanthang unit. Stars indicate the location of hair traps (n = 11) and white circles with black dots indicate samples (n = 97) which were analyzed for our study. The black circles (n = 24), circles with cross (n = 21) and triangles (n = 15) represent the distribution of control region (CR) haplotypes NEP-A1, NEP-A2 and NEP-A3, respectively. (Data source: Shapefiles and topographical maps, survey department, Government of Nepal, http://nationalgeoportal.gov.np; SRTM DEM, the Earth Explorer, https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov).
Fig 2
Fig 2. Population structure of Himalayan black bears from ACA, Nepal without prior sampling information.
Vertical bar represented individual bears and color represented membership coefficient (q) of each individual which was less than 0.7 when K = 2; (1) = Jomsom, (2) = Ghandruk, (3) = Lwang, (4) = Sikes, (5) = Manang management units, and no 1–60 represents the individual identified from microsatellite analysis; Similar patterns were observed with prior information of location model.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Phylogenetic relationships among Asiatic black bears using mitogenomes excluding the VNTR’s of the CR (16,363 bp).
The number at the nodes of the branches indicate bootstrap supporting values in percentage (BP) and Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) based on maximum likelihood and Bayesian analyses, respectively. Identical tree topology was also obtained from 12 mitochondrial protein-coding genes and two rRNA genes (12,663 bp). The mtDNA sequence of U. t. japonicus (AB863014) was used as an outgroup. Only bootstrap values over 75% and BPP over 0.95 are shown. Sequences are identified by the subspecies name, origin and country name, followed by the GenBank accession number (NK, North Korea; SK, South Korea). The position of mitogenome haplotypes from U. t. laniger generated in this study is shown in bold face.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Median joining network based on CR haplotypes by using POPART.
A total of 523 positions were included in the final analysis after complete deletion. Network tree was generated using all published haplotypes for 6 subspecies of Asiatic black bears, unknown haplotypes from southeast Asia (Vietnam), Taiwan, Yunnan province of China and unknown origin; (A) for 130 haplotypes of Asiatic black bears and (B) based on continental subspecies of 40 haplotypes after excluding the haplotypes from Japan, Taiwan zoo and Vietnam’s rescue center. The detail information of each haplotypes is presented in S4 Table.

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Grants and funding

This study was partially funded by Grant-in-Aid from the Program for Leading Graduate Schools of Hokkaido University (RK), URL: http://leading.vetmed.hokudai.ac.jp/en/ and The Rufford Foundation, Grant No. 18343-1/7382bb-2 (RK), URL: https://www.rufford.org/projects/rabin_kadariya_0. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.