Genetic variability in the European bison (Bison bonasus) population from Białowieża forest over 50 years

  1. MAŁGORZATA TOKARSKA1,*,
  2. AGATA KAWAŁKO1,
  3. JAN M. WÓJCIK1,
  4. CINO PERTOLDI1,2

Article first published online: 23 JUL 2009

DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2009.01203.x

Issue

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

Volume 97, Issue 4, pages 801–809, August 2009

Additional Information

How to Cite

TOKARSKA, M., KAWAŁKO, A., WÓJCIK, J. M. and PERTOLDI, C. (2009), Genetic variability in the European bison (Bison bonasus) population from Białowieża forest over 50 years. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 97: 801–809. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2009.01203.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Mammal Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Waszkiewicza 1c, 17-230 Białowieża, Poland

  2. 2

    Ecology and Genetics, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Aarhus, Ny Munkegade, Buildg. 1540, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

* E-mail: tokarska@zbs.bialowieza.pl

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 23 JUL 2009
  2. Article first published online: 23 JUL 2009
  3. Received 10 October 2008; accepted for publication 14 October 2008

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Keywords:

  • bottleneck;
  • effective population size;
  • genetic monitoring;
  • inbreeding;
  • multilocus heterozygosity;
  • temporal groups

The aim of this study was to assess potential post-bottleneck temporal genetic differentiation following the reintroduction of the species into the Białowieża Forest. Variability of 12 polymorphic microsatellite markers was analysed for 178 individuals born between 1955 and 2005, divided by birth year into five temporal groups. Low overall allelic richness (AR) per locus (AR = 2.0) and a low overall expected heterozygosity (HE = 0.28) were observed. The overall FIS was not significantly different from zero. The mean FIS values were, however, significantly different from zero for individuals born between 1955 and 1965 (FIS = 0.19). A Bayesian computation was used to estimate effective population size (Ne) for each temporal group. We observed relatively small values of Ne ranging from 7.9 to 28.4. The low Ne values confirm that, despite a rapid growth of the bison population following the founder event, Ne increased only slowly. © 2009 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2009, 97, 801–809.

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