Dataset Information

Noninvasive sampling reveals population genetic structure in the Royle's pika, Ochotona roylei, in the western Himalaya.

ABSTRACT: Understanding population genetic structure of climate-sensitive herbivore species is important as it provides useful insights on how shifts in environmental conditions can alter their distribution and abundance. Herbivore responses to the environment can have a strong indirect cascading effect on community structure. This is particularly important for Royle's pika (Lagomorpha: Ochotona roylei), a herbivorous talus-dwelling species in alpine ecosystem, which forms a major prey base for many carnivores in the Himalayan arc. In this study, we used seven polymorphic microsatellite loci to detect evidence for recent changes in genetic diversity and population structure in Royle's pika across five locations sampled between 8 and 160 km apart in the western Himalaya. Using four clustering approaches, we found the presence of significant contemporary genetic structure in Royle's pika populations. The detected genetic structure could be primarily attributed to the landscape features in alpine habitat (e.g., wide lowland valleys, rivers) that may act as semipermeable barriers to gene flow and distribution of food plants, which are key determinants in spatial distribution of herbivores. Pika showed low inbreeding coefficients (F IS) and a high level of pairwise relatedness for individuals within 1 km suggesting low dispersal abilities of talus-dwelling pikas. We have found evidence of a recent population bottleneck, possibly due to effects of environmental disturbances (e.g., snow melting patterns or thermal stress). Our results reveal significant evidence of isolation by distance in genetic differentiation (F ST range = 0.04-0.19). This is the first population genetics study on Royle's pika, which helps to address evolutionary consequences of climate change which are expected to significantly affect the distribution and population dynamics in this talus-dwelling species.

SUBMITTER: Bhattacharyya S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6342111 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Noninvasive sampling reveals population genetic structure in the Royle's pika, <i>Ochotona roylei</i>, in the western Himalaya.

Bhattacharyya Sabuj S Ishtiaq Farah F

Ecology and evolution 20181226 1

Understanding population genetic structure of climate-sensitive herbivore species is important as it provides useful insights on how shifts in environmental conditions can alter their distribution and abundance. Herbivore responses to the environment can have a strong indirect cascading effect on community structure. This is particularly important for Royle's pika (Lagomorpha: <i>Ochotona roylei</i>), a herbivorous talus-dwelling species in alpine ecosystem, which forms a major prey base for man ...[more]

PMID: 30680105

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Project description:Testis-specific lactate dehydrogenase (LDH-C₄) is one of the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) isozymes that catalyze the terminal reaction of pyruvate to lactate in the glycolytic pathway. LDH-C₄ in mammals was previously thought to be expressed only in spermatozoa and testis and not in other tissues. Plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) belongs to the genus Ochotona of the Ochotonidea family. It is a hypoxia-tolerant species living in remote mountain areas at altitudes of 3000-5000 m above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Surprisingly, Ldh-c is expressed not only in its testis and sperm, but also in somatic tissues of plateau pika. To shed light on the function of LDH-C₄ in somatic cells, Ldh-a, Ldh-b, and Ldh-c of plateau pika were subcloned into bacterial expression vectors. The pure enzymes of Lactate Dehydrogenase A₄ (LDH-A₄), Lactate Dehydrogenase B₄ (LDH-B₄), and LDH-C₄ were prepared by a series of expression and purification processes, and the three enzymes were identified by the method of sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). The enzymatic kinetics properties of these enzymes were studied by Lineweaver-Burk double-reciprocal plots. The results showed the Michaelis constant (Km) of LDH-C₄ for pyruvate and lactate was 0.052 and 4.934 mmol/L, respectively, with an approximate 90 times higher affinity of LDH-C₄ for pyruvate than for lactate. At relatively high concentrations of lactate, the inhibition constant (Ki) of the LDH isoenzymes varied: LDH-A₄ (Ki = 26.900 mmol/L), LDH-B₄ (Ki = 23.800 mmol/L), and LDH-C₄ (Ki = 65.500 mmol/L). These data suggest that inhibition of lactate by LDH-A₄ and LDH-B₄ were stronger than LDH-C₄. In light of the enzymatic kinetics properties, we suggest that the plateau pika can reduce reliance on oxygen supply and enhance its adaptation to the hypoxic environments due to increased anaerobic glycolysis by LDH-C₄.

Dataset Information

Noninvasive sampling reveals population genetic structure in the Royle's pika, Ochotona roylei, in the western Himalaya.

Publications

Noninvasive sampling reveals population genetic structure in the Royle's pika, <i>Ochotona roylei</i>, in the western Himalaya.

Similar Datasets

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