Data from: Comparative landscape genetic analyses show a Belgian motorway to be a gene flow barrier for red deer (Cervus elaphus), but not wild boars (Sus scrofa)

While motorways are often assumed to influence the movement behaviour of large mammals, there are surprisingly few studies that show an influence of these linear structures on the genetic make-up of wild ungulate populations. Here, we analyse the spatial genetic structure of red deer (Cervus elaphus) and wild boars (Sus scrofa) along a stretch of motorway in the Walloon part of Belgium. Altogether 876 red deer were genotyped at 13 microsatellite loci, and 325 wild boars at 14 loci. In the case of the red deer, different genetic clustering tools identified two genetic subpopulations whose borders matched the motorway well. Conversely, no genetic structure was identified in the case of the wild boar. Analysis of isolation-by-distance patterns of pairs of individuals on the same side and on different sides of the motorway also suggested that the road was a barrier to red deer, but not to wild boar movement. While telemetry studies seem to confirm that red deer are more affected by motorways then wild boar, the red deer sample size was also much larger than that of the wild boars. We therefore repeated the analysis of genetic structure in the red deer with randomly sub-sampled datasets of decreasing size. The power to detect the genetic structure using clustering methods decreased with decreasing sample size.尽管人们普遍认为高速公路会影响大型哺乳动物的移动行为，但令人意外的是，目前鲜有研究证实这类线性人工结构会对野生有蹄类种群的遗传组成造成影响。本研究针对比利时瓦隆大区一段高速公路沿线的马鹿（Cervus elaphus）与野猪（Sus scrofa），分析其空间遗传结构（spatial genetic structure）。研究共对876头马鹿的13个微卫星位点（microsatellite loci）进行基因分型，同时对325头野猪的14个位点完成基因分型。针对马鹿群体，不同遗传聚类工具（genetic clustering tools）均鉴定出两个遗传亚种群（genetic subpopulations），其种群边界与该高速公路的走向高度吻合。与之相反，野猪群体未检测到任何遗传结构。对高速公路两侧及同侧个体间的距离隔离模式（isolation-by-distance）进行分析后，同样证实该道路对马鹿的移动构成阻隔，但未对野猪的移动产生显著影响。尽管遥测研究（telemetry studies）似乎证实马鹿受高速公路的影响程度高于野猪，但马鹿的样本量也远大于野猪。因此，我们通过随机抽取递减样本量的数据集，重复开展马鹿遗传结构分析，结果显示，利用聚类方法检测遗传结构的效力随样本量缩减而逐渐降低。