Genetic divergence between the South Korean and Mongolian populations of the dung beetle, Gymnopleurus mopsus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) based on mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences

The locally extinct dung beetle, Gymnopleurus mopsus Pallas, 1781 (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae), has not been found in South Korea since the 1970s. This research was conducted to understand the genetic divergence between the South Korean and Mongolian populations of G. mopsus as a part of its reintroduction program in South Korea. The genetic distance and diversity were determined using the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequence (658bp) corresponding to the DNA barcode region. The mitochondrial COI gene sequences of 64 individuals of G.mopsus collected in South Korea (7 individuals) and Mongolia (57 individuals) showed a relatively high level of genetic diversity (nucleotide diversity, 0.0078 +/- 0.0007; Haplotype diversity, 0.965 +/- 0.017). The genetic distances between the South Korean and Mongolian populations lay within the intraspecific level and the phylogenetic reconstruction using the neighbor-joining (NJ) method showed that all individuals belonged to a single clade. This result indicates that the current Mongolian population of G.mopsus is a good candidate source population to restore the locally extinct population of the species in South Korea.