Phylogeography of chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) in China based on mtDNA control region

The chukar partridge (Alectoris chukar) is distributed in north and northwest of China, in mountainous areas that were heavily affected by cyclic climate and landscape changes during the last Pleistocene glaciations. Some partridge populations have colonized and expanded their present ranges only after deglaciation and recent deforestation by human. Consequently, partridges from different areas could be genetically differentiated. In this study, a 1152-1154 bp portion of the mitochondrial DNA control region were analyzed for all 279 specimens collected from 28 populations through their distribution in China. A total number of 91 haplotypes were defined by 113 variable sites. The mean haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity were 0.939 ± 0.008 and 0.0030 ± 0.0017, respectively, for chukar. Haplotype diversity among the 28 populations varied from 0.600 ± 0.215 (HH) to 1.000 ± 0.272 (SBC), and nucleotide diversity ranged from 0.0006 ± 0.0007 (HJ) to (0.0071 ± 0.0041) (HEG). The nucleotide diversity of chukar was descending from west to east and a possible historical scenario might be that A. chukar inhabited central Asia, and then dispersed eastward. Phylogenetic analyses indicated that there was no distinct phylogeographic structure in chukar populations in China. Haplotype network of chukar was star-like with some common haplotypes shared by different samples came from different populations as center. Both unstructured phylogeographic tree and star-like haplotype network are signatures of population expansion.