Genetic Variation among Populations of the Mexican Prairie Dog

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Abstract
Mexican prairie dogs from three locations were analyzed for variation at 46 electrophoretic loci. Fourteen (30%) of the loci were polymorphic. Genetic distances between populations were low (range of Rogers' D, 0.033 to 0.045), indicating little genic differentiation. The mean Fst over all variable loci was 0.07 and indicated significant heterogeneity among the populations sampled. The genetic structure of Mexican prairie dog populations appears comparable to that of black-tailed prairie dog populations over short geographic distances. Cynomys mexicanus is distinctly different from C. ludovicianus, its purported ancestral species, at only two loci examined and the two species are separated by a genetic distance (Nei, 1972) of only 0.057. The estimated time since divergence based on genetic distance is 42,180 yr.

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