Title

Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) from Queensland are genetically distinct from 2 populations in Victoria

Authors

Christina T. Ruiz-Rodriguez, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Yasuko Ishida, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Neil D. Murray, La Trobe University
Stephen J. O'brien, Saint Petersburg State UniversityFollow
Jennifer A.M. Graves, La Trobe University
Alex D. Greenwood, Leibniz-Institut für Zoo- und Wildtierforschung
Alfred L. Roca, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-1-2016

Publication Title

Journal of Heredity

Keywords

bottleneck, genetic diversity, microsatellites, mitochondrial DNA, population structure

ISSN

14657333

Volume

107

Issue/No.

7

First Page

573

Last Page

580

Abstract

The koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) suffered population declines and local extirpation due to hunting in the early 20th century, especially in southern Australia. Koalas were subsequently reintroduced to the Brisbane Ranges (BR) and Stony Rises (SR) by translocating individuals from a population on French Island descended from a small number of founders. To examine genetic diversity and north-south differentiation, we genotyped 13 microsatellite markers in 46 wild koalas from the BR and SR, and 27 Queensland koalas kept at the US zoos. The Queensland koalas displayed much higher heterozygosity (H O = 0.73) than the 2 southern Australian koala populations examined: H O = 0.49 in the BR, whereas H O = 0.41 in the SR. This is consistent with the historical accounts of bottlenecks and founder events affecting the southern populations and contrasts with reports of high genetic diversity in some southern populations. The 2 southern Australian koala populations were genetically similar (F ST = 0.018, P = 0.052). By contrast, northern and southern Australian koalas were highly differentiated (F ST = 0.27, P < 0.001), thereby suggesting that geographic structuring should be considered in the conservation management of koalas. Sequencing of 648bp of the mtDNA control region in Queensland koalas found 8 distinct haplotypes, one of which had not been previously detected among koalas. Queensland koalas displayed high mitochondrial haplotype diversity (H = 0.753) and nucleotide diversity (π = 0.0072), indicating along with the microsatellite data that North American zoos have maintained high levels of genetic diversity among their Queensland koalas.

NSUWorks Citation

Ruiz-Rodriguez, Christina T.; Yasuko Ishida; Neil D. Murray; Stephen J. O'brien; Jennifer A.M. Graves; Alex D. Greenwood; and Alfred L. Roca. 2016. "Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) from Queensland are genetically distinct from 2 populations in Victoria." Journal of Heredity 107, (7): 573-580. doi:10.1093/jhered/esw049.

DOI

10.1093/jhered/esw049