Microsatellite analysis of North American pine marten (Martes americana) populations from the Yukon and Northwest Territories

Elucidating the population genetic structure of a species gives us insight into the levels of gene flow between geographic regions. Such data may have important implications for those trying to manage a heavily harvested wild life species by determining the genetic connectivity of adjacent population s. In this study, the population structure of 12 North American pine marten (Martes americana) populations from the Yukon through to the central North west Territories was investigated using 11 microsatellite loci. Genetic var iation within populations across the entire geographic range was relatively homogeneous as measured by: mean number of alleles (5.89 +/- 0.45) and the average unbiased expected heterozygosity (H-e) (65.6 +/- 1.7%). The overal l unbiased probability of identity showed more variance between populations (1/10.25 +/- 7.84 billion) than did the mean number of alleles and the H-e estimates. Although some population structure was found among the populati ons, most regions were not strongly differentiated from one another. The lo w level of structure among the populations can, in part, be attributed to i solation by distance rather than to population fragmentation, as would be e xpected in more southerly regions in which suitable habitat is more disjunc t. Furthermore, the low levels of population genetic structure were likely due to high levels of gene flow between regions and to large effective mart en populations in the northern part of their distribution.