Genetic characteristic in the European bison (Bison bonasus L.) population from Lithuania

The European bison (Bison bonasus Linnaeus, 1758) is the largest herbivore mammal surviving in Europe. Since 1973, Lithuania has been one of few European countries with the first free ranging herd. The species is still included in the country's Red Data Book. The knovvledge about population genetic diversity of this species is limited. This study aimed to estimate genetic structure in the European bison using mitochondrial DNA(mtDNA) control region. We conducted a study of genetic diversity of 30 individuals collected from a free-living Lithuania population. Variable sites, nucleotide (tt) and haplotype diversity (Hd) values were estimated in the studied B. bonasus population in Lithuania and compared results with other studies. Current genetic diversity study indicated low mtDNAcontrol-region sequence variation in the European bison population from LithuaniaBiologijos katedraPanevėžio miškų urėdijaValstybinė saugomų teritorijų tarnyba prie Aplinkos ministerijosVytauto Didžiojo universiteta