Population genetics and phylogeographic study of raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides)

Abstract

Raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides), originated in East Asia, is classified as six subspecies according to geographical distribution including introduced population into Europe. Raccoon dog is a true omnivore that plays an important role in maintaining the food web balance in ecosystems and is an effective scavenger. They are also vectors for numerous contagious and zoonotic diseases such as rabies or canine distemper, and parasites. There is public interest on raccoon dog populations due to their influence on ecosystems. Moreover, they quickly colonized European countries, where their rapid population growth has raised concerns about disturbances to ecosystems and the spread of zoonotic diseases. In addition, most studies considering the genetic structure of raccoon dogs focused on populations at a regional scale and thus a population genetic study spanning the broad geographic range of the species is still lacking. Understanding the degree of population structure and genetic differentiation within a species can inform on decisions to conserve the genetic diversity. Information obtained by analyzing microsatellite loci can be used to and determine the genetic structure and recent gene flow between natural populations and serves as a basis for establishing management units (MUs). Lately, opinions that Japanese raccoon dogs should be distinct as a different species were asserted by several studies