A Noninvasive Study of the Geographic Distribution of Maternal Lineages and Genetic Diversity in the Endangered Eurasian Flying Squirrel Population in the Sobaeksan National Park, South Korea

This study examined the geographic distribution of maternal lineages and genetic diversity in the endangered Eurasian flying squirrel population in Sobaeksan National Park (NP), South Korea, based on the sequence polymorphisms of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) D-loop region using noninvasive fecal samples. A total of 201 D-loop sequences were further identified as 52 individuals based on microsatellite (MS) genotypes. The entire population had eighteen haplotypes with high levels of haplotype diversity (Hd) (0.919±0.020) and nucleotide diversity (π) (0.0267±0.0015). The three populations within the Sobaeksan NP were related to each other by matrilineal lineage regardless of isolation by geographic distance. Genetic differentiation (Fst) was higher among populations within Sobaeksan NP and Gangwon-do (0.196-0.227) than those among three populations within Sobaeksan NP (0.044-0.117), and migration rate (Nm) was lower (0.85-1.03) than those among three populations (1.89-5.43). Phylogenetic analysis results showed that the genetic distances between the three populations of Sobaeksan NP were close (0.0273-0.0321), so those are estimated to be closely related to each other, but those appeared to be genetically distant from the haplotypes found in Gangwon-do (0.0422-0.0495) and Jeollanam-do (0.0513-0.0551). These findings suggest that the results of this study will provide crucial information for developing future management strategies to manage the habitat and enhance genetic diversity of the endangered Eurasian flying squirrel in the Sobaeksan NP, South Korea.