New papers on two martes species
Words by Jun J. Sato | Photograph credit to Jun J. Sato, Department of Biological Science, Fukuyama University
I am pleased to inform you that we have recently published two papers about evolution of the sable, Martes zibelllina, and ecology of the Japanese marten, M. melampus. Here, I would like to introduce them briefly. First, Kinoshita et al. (2024) examined genome-wide SNPs through the MIG-seq analysis and the mitochondrial DNA variations. The study indicated repeated migration events of the sable from the Eurasian continent into Hokkaido Island in Japan and showed how the sables in Hokkaido and Iturup islands were constructed in space and time.
From the result, we can understand the evolutionary dispersal patterns of this species in East Asia, also contributing to the understanding of the relationship between climate changes in Pleistocene and mammalian biogeography. Second, Sato et al. (2025) examined the plant and animal diets of the Japanese marten using the DNA metabarcoding analyses of the fecal samples collected from the ground. Three sets of novel PCR primers on the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene were also developed for the genetic species identification of the Japanese marten. The study clarified that the Japanese martens mainly consumed fresh fruits of various plants depending on the season and supplemented their diet with invertebrates and vertebrate species.
It also suggested flexible dietary trends of this species at the boundary between forest and human activity area, contributing to the understanding of “coexistence” between human and wildlife. The analyses used in these papers can be applied to any species in Martes. I hope that you can obtain useful information from these papers.
Kinoshita G, Sato T, Murakami S, Monakov V, Kryukov AP, Frisman LV, Tsunamoto Y, Suyama Y, Murakami T, Suzuki H, Sato JJ (2024) Ice-age land bridges to continental islands: repeated migration of the forest-dwelling sable in northeastern Asia. Journal of Biogeography 51 (5): 924-939 https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14797.
Sato JJ, Kosakaie R, Kado K, Yamaguchi Y (2025) Fecal DNA metabarcoding analyses imply seasonally opportunistic feeding by the Japanese marten Martes melampus (Mammalia: Carnivora) in southwestern Honshu Island, Japan. Zoological Science (in press).