Introduction
The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca ) is a vulnerable species
endemic to China. Although China’s recent efforts have greatly increased
the number and distribution of the wild population, the giant pandas is
only distributed in six isolated mountains, namely Qinling Mountains,
Minshan Mountains, Qionglai Mountains, Liangshan Mountains, Daxiangling
Mountains and Xiaoxiangling Mountains (State Forestry Administration,
2006). The wild population is subject to different degrees of habitat
fragmentation at each of the six mountains, and is further divided into
more than 30 small populations (O’Brien et al., 1994; Loucks et al.,
2001; Lü et al., 2001; Qing, 2016). Therefore, the giant panda is still
at a great risk of extinction (Sichuan Provincial Forestry Department,
2015), particularly being vulnerable to stochastic processes. And thus a
comprehensive understanding the population size and genetic health
status of giant pandas in these region is crucial for the protection
decision-making and conservation of this vulnerable species.
The Liangshan Mountains is the southernmost distribution of giant pandas
and is located in the transition zone between the southwest edge of the
Sichuan basin and the Qinghai Tibet Plateau. The transition zone is
within a global biodiversity hotspot, is highly important for the
protection of biodiversity in China and is crucial for giant panda
protection
(Fan
et al., 2010). However, the Liangshan Mountains is outside the newly
established Giant panda national Park (National Forestry and Grassland
Administration (National Park Administration), 2019) (Figure 1).
According to
the
fourth survey report on giant pandas, there are 124 giant pandas in the
Liangshan
Mountains
and are mainly distributed in Heizhugou, Meigu and Mabian nature
reserves (Sichuan Provincial Forestry Department, 2015) (Table 1).
These
three reserves are located in the heartland of the Liangshan Mountains,
and thus are crucial for the protection of giant pandas in the Liangshan
Mountains. However, the accurate number, genetic diversity, gene
exchange and stable inheritance of panda populations in these key areas
remain unclear. Understanding these issues will be vital to the
protection of giant pandas in the Liangshan Mountains.
Microsatellite markers have become an important genetic markers in the
field of molecular biology (Selkoe and Toonen, 2010) and have been
widely used in population surveys (Creel et al., 2003; Piggott et al.,
2006; Wang et al., 2016), genetic diversity assessments (Vanhala et al.,
1998; Zhang et al., 2007; Shen et al., 2009; Li et al., 2010; Du et al.,
2016), and genetic management of populations (Shan et al., 2014). The
combined application of
microsatellite markers,
mitochondrial markers and non-invasive genetic sampling allows giant
panda population studies without the risk of capture stress, injury or
death, which has contributed greatly to giant pandas conservation in the
past 20 years.
Consequently,
we used microsatellite markers and mitochondrial markers (D-loop) to
accurately identify population size and assess the genetic traits of
giant pandas in Heizhugou, Meigu and Mabian giant panda populations. We
aimed to assess the genetic health status of giant pandas and provide
reliable data for establishing genetic archives of giant panda
populations and developing the genetic management of giant pandas across
the Liangshan Mountains. This is the first extensive genetic survey of
giant pandas in the Liangshan Mountains.