The raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is endemic to East Asia but has been introduced in Europe. Its high adaptability enabled its rapid colonization of European countries, where population growth has been raising concerns regarding ecosystem disturbance and the spread of zoonotic diseases. The genetic diversity and structure of endemic, source, and introduced populations from seven locations across South Korea, China, Russian Far East, Finland (spread to Finland after introduction to European part of Russia from Russian Far East), Vietnam, and Japan (Honshu and Hokkaido) were examined based on 16 microsatellite loci. Two major and significantly different (FST = 0.236) genetic clusters were found: continental (South Korean, Chinese, Russian, Finnish, and Vietnamese) and island (Japanese) populations. The continental raccoon dog population comprises three subpopulations (Chinese_Russian_Finnish, South Korean, and Vietnamese) and the Japanese population consists of Honshu and Hokkaido subpopulations. The genetic diversity and geographic structure of raccoon dogs in East Asia has been influenced by natural barriers to gene flow and reveals a typical central-marginal trend in genetic diversity (continental vs. island, and central vs. marginal or source vs. introduced within continental populations). The detected differences between continental and island populations agree with those reported in previous studies that considered these populations as different species.
Keywords: Nyctereutes procyonoides; genetic diversity; microsatellite; population structure; raccoon dog.