Brown Hare’s (Lepus europaeus) Histone H1 Variant H1.2 as an Indicator of Anthropogenic Stress

From the liver tissues of brown hare individuals that lived in two various habitats, i.e., the agricultural region with the predominant farms and the industrial area near a metallurgical plant, histones H1 were analyzed to compare their within and between population variability. Furthermore, because agricultural production emits mainly organic pollutants and metallurgical industry is a primarily source of inorganic contaminations, we wanted to check how the brown hare individuals are sensitive for both agents. Among brown hare H1 histones, the histone H1.2 was determined as heterogeneous due to its varied mobility in two-dimensional SDS–polyacrylamide gel. The obtained electrophoretic patterns contained differently moving single spots of histone H1.2 and also its double spots have a similar rate of electrophoretic mobility. Based on this, two homozygous phenotypes (slowly migrating 2a and faster moving 2b) and a heterozygous phenotype (2a2b) was distinguished. The relatively low variable (CV < 0.25) and comparably abundant (p > 0.05) histone H1.2 homozygous phenotypes form a heterozygous phenotype in a similar proportion, at a ratio approximating 0.5. Although the brown hare population originating from agricultural area displayed a slight excess of heterozygous individuals 2a2b (F = − 0.04), it was conformed to the Hardy–Weinberg assumption (χ(2) = 0.035, p = 0.853). Compared with this population, a sevenfold reduced frequency of the phenotype 2b and above tenfold increase of a heterozygosity (F = − 0.53) was observed in the brown hare population inhabiting the vicinity of metallurgical plant. Therefore, this population did not fit to the Hardy–Weinberg law (χ(2) = 5.65, p = 0.017). Despite the negligible genetic differentiation (F(ST) = 0.026) between brown hare populations inhabiting areas with different anthropogenic pressure, a statistically significant difference in the distribution of their phenotypes (χ(2) = 6.01, p = 0.049) and alleles (χ(2) = 6.50, p = 0.013) was noted. The collected data confirm that the brown hare species is sensitive for environmental quality and may serve as a good indicator of habitat conditions related to both organic pollution emitted by agricultural activities (PIC = 0.48) and inorganic contamination originating from metallurgical processes (PIC = 0.49). These difference in the environmental quality might be assessed by estimation of genetic variability among the brown hare populations, based on the phenotypes distribution of histone H1 variant H1.2, the protein that was not so far employed as a molecular marker of anthropogenic stress.