engleski

Distinguishing of pine marten (Martes martes) and stone marten (Martes foina) based on the control region of mitochondrial DNA

Pine marten (Martes martes) and stone marten (Martes foina) are spread throughout most of the Europe, including Scandinavia. In Croatia pine marten usually lodges in forested areas while the stone marten gravitates towards urban areas and is more abundant in Mediterranean region than pine marten. Despite the fact that there are several morphological differences, as well as differences in life and feeding habits, there are numerous examples when these differences are not that distinct. Therefore the aim of this research was to develop a simple and cost – effective molecular method for distinguishing these two species. One of the most commonly used markers for species distinguishing is mitochondrial DNA control region. Mitochondrial DNA is a circle double-stranded DNA molecule which is inherited only from a mother. Non-coding mtDNA is also called the control region and is the place in which the replication and transcription of mitochondrion genome begin. DNA was isolated from muscle samples of 19 pine martens (Martes martes) and 82 stone martens (Martes foina) from Croatia. Samples were collected by volunteers (hunters, biologist, and veterinarians) from animals killed in traffic accidents or culled during regular game management and volunteers identified the species based on the morphology. By analyzing the control region sequences of the total length of 591 base pairs we identified 51 polymorphic sites. Polymorphic sites defined 20 haplotypes in total, 9 pine martens and 11 stone martens. Within species haplotypes differed in 10 polymorphic sites, while 31 polymorphic places were crucial for distinguishing the two martens species. Based on the morphology volunteers erroneously identified 10.9% of samples, emphasizing the importance of this method for precise identification when morphological differences are scarce.

pine marten; stone marten; mitochondrial DNA; control region; polymorphic sites

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