Data from: Using a reference population yardstick to calibrate and compare genetic diversity reported in different studies: an example from the brown bear.

In species with large geographic ranges, genetic diversity of different populations may be well studied, but differences in loci and sample sizes can make the results of different studies difficult to compare. Yet, such comparisons are important for assessing the status of populations of conservation concern. We propose a simple approach of using a single well-studied reference population as a "yardstick" to calibrate results of different studies to the same scale, enabling comparisons. We use a well-studied large carnivore, the brown bear (Ursus arctos), as a case study to demonstrate the approach. As a reference population, we genotyped 513 brown bears from Slovenia using 20 polymorphic microsatellite loci. We used this dataset to calibrate and compare heterozygosity and allelic richness for 30 brown bear populations from 10 different studies across the global distribution of the species. The simplicity of the reference population approach makes it useful for other species, enabling comparisons of genetic diversity estimates between previously incompatible studies and improving our understanding of how genetic diversity is distributed along a species range.对于地理分布范围广泛的物种种群而言，尽管学界已对不同种群的遗传多样性开展了较为充分的研究，但不同研究所采用的基因座与样本量存在差异，这使得各项研究的结果难以进行横向比较。然而，此类比较对于评估保育关注种群的生存状态至关重要。为此，我们提出一种简便可行的研究方法：以单个经过充分研究的参考种群作为“标尺”，将不同研究的结果校准至统一量纲，从而实现跨研究的结果比较。我们以研究基础较为扎实的大型食肉动物——棕熊（Ursus arctos）为案例物种，对该方法进行实证验证。以斯洛文尼亚棕熊种群作为参考种群，我们对来自该区域的513只棕熊采用20个多态性微卫星位点（microsatellite loci）进行基因分型。依托该数据集，我们对全球棕熊分布范围内10项独立研究中的30个棕熊种群的杂合度（heterozygosity）与等位基因丰富度（allelic richness）开展校准与对比分析。该参考种群方法操作简便，可推广应用于其他物种种群研究，能够实现此前无法兼容的各项研究间遗传多样性估算结果的横向比较，有助于深化我们对遗传多样性沿物种分布范围分布格局的认知。