Biodiversity information obtained from feces of mammals including the Tsushima leopard cat and application to species conservation 1230335CA 80192748

本研究的目的是获取野外采集的包括对马豹猫在内的食肉哺乳动物粪便样本的遗传信息，并将其应用于物种保护。利用线粒体DNA标记的聚合酶链式反应方法对粪便样品进行了微卫星基因分型的个体检测，鉴定了其物种为豹猫。通过两到六次重复分析，证实了一个样本上的基因分析重现性。性别鉴定也使用了性染色体DNA标记，导致了更高的个体测试成功率。利用最近两年在对马岛禁区采集的粪便样本，发现一些不同年份的粪便来自相同的豹猫个体，表明该方法为估计个体的范围提供了可能。此外，利用微卫星标记和组织样本的类似方法澄清了对马貂的遗传背景，对马貂是与对马豹猫共处的物种，并将结果发表在一篇文章中。此外，将这种非侵入性方法应用于北海道红狐本地种群的个体特征测试和个体数量估计，结果表明，这种非侵入性方法对食肉动物物种的保护遗传学研究有很大的贡献。

The purpose of this study was to obtain genetic information on fecal samples of carnivoran mammals including the Tsushima leopard cat, collected from field, and apply it to species conservation. Individuality test using microsatellite genotyping was performed on the fecal samples, whose species were identified as the leopard cat by using the PCR method of mitochondrial DNA markers. The analytical reproduction of genotypes on one sample was confirmed by two to six replications of analysis. The sex identification was also performed using sex-chromosomal DNA markers, leading to higher success rates of individuality test. By using the fecal samples collected in a restricted area on Tsushima Island during the last two years, some feces from different years were found to be originated from identical individuals of the leopard cats, indicating that the method makes it possible to estimate the ranges of individuals. Additionally, the similar method using microsatellite markers and tissue samples clarified the genetic background of the Tsushima marten, which is a sympatric species with the Tsushima leopard cat, and the result was published in an article. Furthermore, this kind of the non-invasive method was applied to individuality test and estimation of the individual number in a local population of the red fox in Hokkaido, and the successful result shows that the non-invasive method very much contributes to conservation genetic study of carnivoran species.