Population structure and genetic variation of European wild rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) in East Anglia

The European wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is an introduced species i n Britain, and populations have been profoundly influenced by both man and disease. In stable environmental conditions, distinct social behaviour is o bserved, and this social structure leads to significant genetic structuring at the intrapopulation level. In this study, European wild rabbits were sa mpled from 17 sites across the East Anglian region of Britain and genotyped with nine microsatellite loci. Genotypical proportions deviated significan tly from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, reflecting a degree of population subd ivision and non-random mating. Several estimates of measures of population genetic structure revealed that populations are genetically distinct and ha ve small effective population sizes. These distinctive properties are seen to be the combined effects of the social structure and random drift acting on bottlenecked populations after myxomatosis. It is concluded that the gen etic structure seen in rabbit populations today is unlikely to reflect hist orical structuring present before myxomatosis, but that it results from rec ent events.