Fig 1.
Map showing the location of tiger samples collected from Sundarbans.
Table 1.
Allele size range, Number of alleles (Na) and genotyping error rates (ADO = allelic dropout, FA = False allele) at nine microsatellite loci with field collected scat (n = 10; for Kanha tiger reserve), tissue samples (n = 10; from Corbett tiger reserve) and scat & hair samples from Sundarbans (n = 8) of wild Bengal tiger.
Fig 2.
Median-joining network created from four mtDNA genes (cytb, ND2, ND5 and ND6) (in total, 2600 bp) depicting genetic relationship between all haplotypes found in tigers.
(a) haplotypes found in Sundarbans tigers (in black) and all other six tiger subspecies (in yellow and green color, from Luo et al. 2004) [2], (b) all haplotypes found in Bengal tiger populations from this study and Mondol et al. [22]. Pink: North India, Yellow: Central India, Blue: South India, and Green: Sundarbans. The sizes of the circles are proportional to the haplotype frequencies.
Table 2.
Genetic diversity indices and effective population size (Ne) of Sundarbans, Peninsular, and northern India tiger populations based on nine microsatellite markers and partial mtDNA sequence.
Table 3.
Pairwise Fst values between Sundarbans, Peninsular and northern India tiger populations using microsatellite (below diagonal) and mtDNA markers (above diagonal).
Fig 3.
Individual assignment probabilities of Bengal tiger populations analyzed using the model-based program STRUCTURE run of K = 2 to 5 for different dataset/tiger populations (See methods for details): a) northern, Peninsular and Sundarbans, b) Peninsular and Sundarbans, c) northern and Sundarbans and d) Palamau and Sundarbans.
Each individual is represented by a vertical bar and indicates the probability of membership in each cluster.
Fig 4.
Migration rates detected with BayesAss-program for each population with 95% credible set.
Arrows show the direction of gene flow.
Fig 5.
Bayesian skyline plots showing the demographic history of tigers in India.
Fig 6.
Pop 1 = northern India, Pop 2 = Peninsular India and Pop 3 = Sundarbans.
Table 4.
Historic scenarios (1–3) explored with DIYABC to explain present genetic structure in the Bengal tiger populations from northern, Peninsular and Sundarbans.
Table 5.
Comparison of ecological exchangeability between Sundarbans and mainland Bengal tiger landscape in India.
Fig 7.
Distribution of TIG5 and TIG7 mitochondrial DNA haplotypes observed in Bengal tiger population and expansion of irrigated agriculture due to the Ganges basin and canals around Sundarbans.
(1- Rajaji NP, 2- Corbett TR, 3- Dudhwa TR, 4- Buxa TR, 5- Ranthambhore TR, 6- Bandhavgarh TR, 7- Kanha TR, 8- Pench TR, 9- Palamau TR, 10-Simlipal TR, Sundarbans- Sundarbans Tiger Reserve).