Epigenetic Variability of the Highly Endangered Przewalski’s Horses in Temporal and Geographical Populations

Abstract

Despite the successful conservation of the Przewalski’s horse (PH), Equus ferus przewalskii Groves, 1986 in captivity and reintroduction attempts in Mongolia, there is little knowledge on the genetic variability of these populations. We studied 76 non-metric characters of 130 PH skulls to assess epigenetic variability within and epigenetic distance between temporal and geographical populations of the PH, as well as their fluctuating asymmetry. Our assessment includes skull samples of original native, captive, and reintroduced PH populations. We found the epigenetic variability of original (Iev = 0.21) and captive (Iev = 0.22) PH populations to be similar; the epigenetic variability of reintroduced PH populations was slightly higher (Iev = 0.25). We compared the degree of epigenetic distance among original native, captive, and reintroduced PH populations spanning over 110 years. A low degree of fluctuating asymmetry (FA = 0.05 - 0.08) found in all populations we examined indicates no signs of reduced developmental stability. This suggests that the PH populations are not under undue environmental stress, and there is no evidence of effects of inbreeding depression.

Keywords

• przewalski's horse
• non-metric characters
• epigenetic variability