Species assessed as threatened by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) show evidence of declining population sizes. Genetic diversity is lost by this decline, which reduces the adaptive potential of the species and increases its extinction risk in a changing environment. In this study, we collected an extensive dataset of nucleotide diversities in the COI (Cytochrome C Oxidase subunit I) mitochondrial gene for 4,363 animal species assessed by IUCN and found significantly reduced levels of diversity in threatened species of long‐lived animal classes. Then, we built up a comparative frame by acquiring the 95% confidence interval (CI) of mean values of COI nucleotide diversity in bootstrapped samples of nonthreatened species. Finally, we tested the comparative frame with data from the endangered bivalve species, Pinna nobilis. We conclude that nucleotide diversity in COI is a good proxy for a first evaluation of the conservation status of species populations, where previous knowledge is lacking and census is difficult to perform .

中文翻译：

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COI线粒体基因核苷酸多样性在动物物种保护状态早期诊断中的应用

被国际自然保护联盟（IUCN）评估为受威胁物种的证据表明，种群数量正在减少。这种下降使遗传多样性丧失，这降低了物种的适应潜力，并在不断变化的环境中增加了物种灭绝的风险。在这项研究中，我们收集了IUCN评估的4,363种动物的线粒体基因COI（细胞色素C氧化酶亚基I）的核苷酸多样性的广泛数据集，并发现长寿命动物类别的受威胁物种的多样性水平显着降低。然后，我们通过获取未受威胁物种的自举样本中COI核苷酸多样性平均值的95％置信区间（CI），建立了一个比较框架。最后，我们用濒危的双壳类物种的数据测试了比较框架，Pinna nobilis。我们得出的结论是，COI中的核苷酸多样性可以很好地替代物种种群的保护状况的首次评估，因为先前种群的知识缺乏且普查难以进行。