Introgressive hybridization and population genetic diversity between rusty-necklaced partridge and chukar partridge in northwestern China

Introgressive hybridization is a common feature of the contact zone between divergent partridges of the genus Alectorus The rusty-necklaced partridge (Alectoris magna) is paralleled with the chukar partridge (A. chukar) along the Liupan Mountain in northwestern China. and hybridization between the two species has been detected in the contact zone within this region We examined nine populations of rusty-necklaced partridge and eight populations of chukar partridge to determine the extent and nature of the hybridization between them A total of 458 nucleotides of mitochondrial DNA control-region were sequenced, revealing a strong asymmetry in introgression between the two taxa. The hybrids, morphologically identified as A magna, were partly introgressed with genetic material from A chukar. The haplotype diversity and nucleotide diversity decreased with increasing hybrid ratio among hybrid populations. The genetic integrity of the rusty-necklaced partridge is shown to be at risk from the Introgressive hybridization