Effects of human perturbation on the genetic make-up of an island population: the case of the Sardinian wild boar.

ABSTRACT: Game species are often manipulated by human beings, whose activities can deeply affect their genetic make-up and population structure. We focused on a geographically isolated wild boar population (Sardinia, Italy), which is classified, together with the Corsican population, as a separate subspecies (Sus scrofa meridionalis). Two hundred and ten wild boars collected across Sardinia were analysed with a set of 10 microsatellites and compared with 296 reference genotypes from continental wild populations and to a sample of domestic pigs. The Sardinian population showed remarkable diversity and a high proportion of private alleles, and strongly deviated from the equilibrium. A Bayesian cluster analysis of only the Sardinian sample revealed a partition into five subpopulations. However, two dif

SUBMITTER: Scandura M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3186246 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature