CANINE DISTEMPER VIRUS IN A WILD FAR EASTERN LEOPARD ( PANTHERA PARDUS ORIENTALIS).

The critically endangered population of Far Eastern leopards ( Panthera pardus orientalis) may number as few as 60 individuals and is at risk from stochastic processes such as infectious disease. During May 2015, a case of canine distemper virus (CDV) was diagnosed in a wild leopard exhibiting severe neurologic disease in the Russian territory of Primorskii Krai. Amplified sequences of the CDV hemagglutinin gene and phosphoprotein gene aligned within the Arctic-like clade of CDV, which includes viruses from elsewhere in Russia, China, Europe, and North America.

[Unidirectional Hybridization of Kaluga Acipenser dauricus Georgi, 1775 and Amur Sturgeon Acipenser schrenckii Brandt, 1869, Inferred from the Mitochondrial DNA Genotyping of Their Natural Hybrids].

In 2009 through 2011, among 730 individuals of kaluga and Amur sturgeon collected in the lower reaches of the Amur River and the Amursky Liman, 17 morphologically intermediate individuals (hybrids) with the body length of 56 to 202 cm (median, 81 cm) were identified, including 11 individuals (4.6%) found in 2009, three individuals (1.6%) found in 2010, and three individuals (1.

Species phylogeny and diversification process of Northeast Asian Pungitius revealed by AFLP and mtDNA markers.

Pungitius is a highly diversified genus of sticklebacks (Gasterosteidae) occurring widely in northern parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Several ecologically and genetically divergent types that are largely isolated reproductively but occasionally hybridize in sympatry have been discovered in Northeast Asia, although the taxonomy and evolutionary relationships among them remain unclear. We used amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) markers to infer phylogenies among individuals collected from sympatric and allopatric populations, including the type localities of the described species.

[On the Population Genetic Portrait of Kaluga, Acipenser dauricus Georgi, 1775 Analysis of Sequence Variation in the Mitochondrial DNA Control Region].

The variability of the mtDNA D-loop was examined in kaluga endemic to the Amur River, which is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened species. Sequencing of the D-loop fragment (819 bp) in 122 kaluga specimens collected in Lower Amur revealed 27 unique genotypes. The sample was characterized by a relatively low level of haplotypic (0.

[Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation, demographic history, and population structure of Amur sturgeon Acipenser schrenckii Brandt, 1869].

The variability of the mtDNA control region (D-loop) was examined in Amur sturgeon endemic to the Amur River. This species is also classified as critically endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened species. Sequencing of 796- to 812-bp fragments of the D-loop in 112 sturgeon collected in the Lower Amur revealed 73 different genotypes.