Phylogeography of the Siberian roe deer in Eurasia and origin of the Siberian mtDNA lineage in European roe deer populations

Abstract

Abstract The Siberian roe deer (Capreolus pygargus) is distributed throughout the continental Asia. Nowadays in eastern Europe there have been detected individuals of C. capreolus with mtDNA of C. pygargus but the origin of this introgression is not clear as there have been not many data available concerning the phylogenetic pattern of the Siberian roe deer. To reveal the source of the introgression and to provide the most comprehensive picture of Siberian roe deer phylogeography we analyzed mtDNA control region fragment (610bp) of 352 roe deer samples combined with 139 sequences available in GenBank. We detected 105 haplotypes and seven mtDNA haplogroups. The proportion of different haplogroups in the regional populations varied longitudinally, with a major shift in Central Siberia. Haplogroups A, C and E were the most frequent in Europe, in the areas defined as introgression regions. In Asia, their shares declined (E) or vanished (A). Seven genetic populations of the Siberian roe deer, including two populations in the range of the European roe deer with the Siberian mtDNA lineage, were detected. Genetic diversity of mtDNA in the Siberian roe deer proved to be greater than it was documented earlier. Two ancient haplogroups, occurring predominantly in Europe, have been a remnant of the past natural interbreeding between the Siberian and the European roe deer that most probably had occurred hundred(s) kyr BP. Translocations of the Siberian roe deer to Eastern Europe performed in the 19th and 20th centuries have also left signals in the populations of the European roe deer.