Genetic relationships of North American bears (Ursus) inferred from amplified fragment length polymorphisms and mitochondrial DNA sequences
The three species of bears in North America, polar bears (Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774), brown bears (Ursus arctos L., 1758), and black bears (Ursus americanus Pallas, 1780), have differentiated morphologies and nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. An exception is a paraphyletic mitochondrial DNA rela...
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Published in | Canadian journal of zoology Vol. 91; no. 9; pp. 626 - 634 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Ottawa
NRC Research Press
01.09.2013
National Research Council of Canada Canadian Science Publishing NRC Research Press |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | The three species of bears in North America, polar bears (Ursus maritimus Phipps, 1774), brown bears (Ursus arctos L., 1758), and black bears (Ursus americanus Pallas, 1780), have differentiated morphologies and nuclear and mitochondrial genomes. An exception is a paraphyletic mitochondrial DNA relationship and some nuclear gene lineages common to polar bears and a population of brown bears from islands in southeast Alaska. In this study, we quantified the genetic relationships of extant brown bears and black bears from Alaska and Montana, and polar bears from Alaska, with amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLP) and mtDNA cytochrome-b sequences. Bayesian cluster analyses of the AFLP data show each species is distinct. All brown bears, including those from the islands in southeast Alaska, cluster separately from polar bears, and black bears cluster separately from brown bears and polar bears. The mtDNA of polar bears and southeast Alaska island brown bears is paraphyletic as reported previously, but the species have different haplotypes. These data indicate that extant populations of brown bears and polar bears have separate nuclear and mitochondrial gene pools and are supported as species under the genetic species concept. |
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Bibliography: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2013-0078 ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1480-3283 0008-4301 1480-3283 0008-4301 |
DOI: | 10.1139/cjz-2013-0078 |