Genetic Specificity of the Siberian Forest Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus valentinae Flerov, 1932) of the Kuznetsk Alatau.

Vasilchenko, A A; Kholodova, M V; Baranova, A I; Naidenko, S V; Rozhnov, V V

This is the first study to show the genetic identity of the Altai-Sayan population of the forest reindeer of the Kuznetsk Alatau (Rangifer tarandus valentinae). The population is characterized by the existence of unique mitochondrial lines, the absence of signs of introgression of domestic rein deer mtDNA, as well as a low level of genetic diversity. In the sample studied, only two nucleotide substitutions (both of them transitions) were revealed, the nucleotide diversity (0.0015 ± 0.00136) was almost ten times lower than in most populations of wild reindeer in Russia and was comparable only with that of some wild reindeer populations of Norway and Svalbard. The haplotype diversity (h) was also relatively low (0.615 ± 0.102).