Detecting Obscure Hybrids of Chinese Bulbuls (Pycnonotus sinensis) and Taiwan Bulbuls (P. taivanus) with Molecular Markers
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Hsu, Yu-Hsun
Abstract
The endemic Taiwan bulbuls (Pycnonotus taivanus) have been hybridizing with Chinese bulbuls (P. sinensis) and produced hybrids with intermediate phenotypes. However, some bulbuls which look like Taiwan bulbuls except with darker face have been seen in Kenting region (referred to as gray-faced Taiwan bulbul in this report). I used a set of microsatellite loci and amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) to discriminate between Chinese and Taiwan bulbuls and to verify if the gray-faced Taiwan bulbuls were their hybrids. The nine microsatellite loci I used could not distinguish between Chinese and Taiwan bulbuls, but 21 out of 138 AFLP fragments could roughly separate the two species. According to these 21 fragments, the gray-faced Taiwan bulbuls showed features of both bulbuls, but were closer to Taiwan bulbuls than to Chinese bulbuls. My results suggested that the gray-faced Taiwan bulbuls probably resulted from hybrids backcrossing with Taiwan bulbuls. Since the gray-faced Taiwan bulbuls are frequently misidentified as Taiwan bulbuls in the field, the degree of introgressive hybridization from Chinese to Taiwan bulbuls can be easily underestimated.
Subjects
hybridization
Taiwan bulbuls
Chinese bulbuls
microsatellite
AFLP
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