Refugia persistence of Qinghai-Tibetan plateau by the cold-tolerant bird Tetraogallus tibetanus (Galliformes: Phasianidae).

Most of the temperate species are expected to have moved to lower altitudes during the glacial periods of the Quaternary. Here we tested this hypothesis in a cold-tolerant avian species Tibetan snowcock (Tetraogallus tibetanus) using two segments of mitochondrial gene (a 705bp Cytochrome-b; abbrev. Cyt-b and an 854 bp Control Region; abbrev. CR) and eight microsatellite loci by characterizing population differentiation and gene flow across its range. Combined (Cyt-b + CR) datasets detected several partially lineages with poor support. Microsatellite data, however, identified two distinct lineages congruent with the geographically separated western and central regions of Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). The phylogeographic patterns that we observed might be explained by a combination of vicariance events that led to local isolation of T. tibetanus during warm periods and range expansions and population intermixing during cold periods. The results of this study add to our knowledge of population differentiation and connectivity in high altitude mountain ecosystems.

在第四纪冰川期，大多数温带物种预计已迁移到低海拔地区。在此，我们利用线粒体基因的两个片段（705bp的细胞色素b，缩写为Cyt - b；854bp的控制区，缩写为CR）以及8个微卫星位点，通过描述其分布范围内的种群分化和基因流情况，在一种耐寒鸟类——藏雪鸡（Tetraogallus tibetanus）中验证这一假说。联合（Cyt - b + CR）数据集检测到几个支持率较低的部分谱系。然而，微卫星数据确定了两个不同的谱系，它们与青藏高原在地理上分隔的西部和中部地区一致。我们所观察到的系统地理格局可能是由多种因素共同造成的：在温暖时期发生的地理隔离事件导致藏雪鸡局部隔离，以及在寒冷时期的分布范围扩张和种群混合。这项研究的结果增加了我们对高海拔山区生态系统中种群分化和连通性的了解。