Accepted_test

Preliminary results of determining the mitochondrial genetic diversity of Ovodov horses in Southern Siberia
by Kusliy M.A. | Malikov D.G. | Klementiev A.M. | Graphodatsky A.S. | Vorobieva N.V. | Molodtseva A.S. | Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, Department of Diversity and Evolution of Genomes, Laboratory of Animal Cytogenetics, Novosibirsk, Russia | V. S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy SB RAS, Laboratory of Cenozoic Geology, Paleoclima-tology and Mineralogical Indicators of Climate, Novosibirsk, Russia | Institute of the Earth's Crust SB RAS, Irkutsk, Russia | Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, Department of Diversity and Evolution of Genomes, Laboratory of Animal Cytogenetics, Novosibirsk, Russia | Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, Department of Diversity and Evolution of Genomes, Laboratory of Animal Cytogenetics, Novosibirsk, Russia | Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology SB RAS, Department of Diversity and Evolution of Genomes, Laboratory of Animal Cytogenetics, Novosibirsk, Russia
Abstract ID: 553
Event: BGRS-abstracts
Sections: [Sym 5] Section “Population and evolutionary genetics/genomics of wild and domestic animals”

Since the sample of Ovodov horses from Siberia studied at the DNA level (2 samples) was small compared to Ovodov horses from China (21 samples), we expanded it and obtained almost complete mitogenomes (mitochondrial genomes) for 10 Late Pleistocene Ovodov horses from Southern Siberia. The main objectives of the study were to confirm the northern boundary of the range of the Ovodov horse (Equus ovodovi), identified on the basis of morphological data (56° north latitude), and to conduct a comparative analysis of the mitochondrial genetic diversity of the Ovodov horse populations of Siberia, China and other populations of wild and domestic species of the genus Equus.

Our research showed that the range of the Ovodov horse (Equus ovodovi) in Siberia extended north to at least 56° north latitude. Conducted phylogenetic reconstructions and population genetic analysis showed a moderate degree of differentiation between the Ovodov horse populations of Siberia and China, which indicates a certain degree of geographic isolation of the extreme northwestern and southeastern parts of the range. The mitochondrial genetic diversity we determined in the horse populations of Siberia and China shows that the species was on the verge of extinction since at least 40 kya. Whether the Ovodov horse species survived in Siberia until the mid-Holocene requires new expeditions and genetic research.

The study is supported by the grant from Russian Science Foundation (No. 23-74-10060, https://rscf.ru/project/23-74-10060/).