Genes of the extinct Caucasian bison still roam the Białowieża Forest and are the source of genetic discrepances between Polish and Belarusian populations of the European bison,Bison bonasus

A groundbreaking genetic analysis reveals that the European bison population in Belarusian part of Białowieża Forest carries genes from the extinct Caucasian bison, unlike its Polish counterpart. This discovery challenges the assumption that both populations belong to the Lowland genetic line (LB). Researchers used 19 microsatellite markers and 1512 bovine SNP markers to compare DNA samples from Polish and Belarusian bison, as well as extinct Caucasian bison. The study found significant genetic differences between the two populations, with the Belarusian population showing traces of Caucasian origin. These findings suggest that the global LB line population is only half its officially recognized size, necessitating urgent conservation actions to preserve this unique lineage within Białowieża Forest.

Tokarska, M., Bunevich, A. N., Demontis, D., Sipko, T., Perzanowski, K., Baryshnikov, G., Kowalczyk, R., Voitukhovskaya, Y., Wójcik, J. M., Marczuk, B., Ruczyńska, I., & Pertoldi, C. (2015). Genes of the extinct Caucasian bison still roam the Białowieża Forest and are the source of genetic discrepances between Polish and Belarusian populations of the European bison,Bison bonasus. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 114(4), 752–763. https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12470