Low genetic variation of cinereous vultures (Aegypius monachus) revealed by the mitochondrial COI gene in central Mongolia

Abstract

The cinereous vulture Aegypius monachus is considered as the largest species among old world’s vultures, and it is also recognized as the important part of any ecosystem, as cleaner of dead animals with natural and non-natural mortality. We investigated genetic characteristics of the cinereous vulture (n = 39) using 738 base-pair (bp) long cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene in mitochondrial DNA. The observed overall haplotype (Hd) and nucleotide (Pi) diversities were 0.279 ±0.0079 and 3.9 x 10-3, respectively. Relatively small genetic pairwise FST distance (FST = 0.027) resulted for weak geographical structure among studied populations (>95% of total variation due to within population). Conducting more investigation on species genetic diversity using more appropriate/polymorphic markers is crucial for better conservation of the cinereous vulture, especially for little known Asian populations.

Keywords

• Genetic variations
• Mitochondrial DNA
• Weak geographical structure