Lecture 20 Flashcards Preview

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Flashcards in Lecture 20 Deck (11)
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1
Q

Conservation biologists have two challenges:

A
  • Which ones are boys, which ones are girls?

- How related are they?

2
Q

To determine sex for each bird:

A
  • Use a W-chomosome marker (2 bands girl, one band boy)
3
Q

Screen micro satellite markers for each bird:

A
  • Determine relatedness based on microsatellite data

- Negative result means they are the least related

4
Q

Based on this data we can select the least related pairs to breed:

A
  • A breeding program is designed to minimise inbreeding
5
Q

Genetic rescue of the Florida panther (Puma concolour coryi):

A
  • At brink of extinction in 1995 (Nc = 26)
  • Low genetic diversity based on microsatellite data
  • Many signs of inbreeding depression (kinked tails, poor semen quality, many parasites
6
Q

How did they avoid extinction?

A
  • Introduced 8 female cougars from Texas into the population of 26 individuals
7
Q

What was the result of the introduced females?

A
  • They thrived!

- Monitoring of the population showed great admixture of genetic material

8
Q

What did they use as the genetic markers to monitor the cat populations?

A
  • They used simple tandem repeats (STR) from the cat genome project
9
Q

How effective was the program?

A
  • The number of individuals from 26 to 102.
  • The effective population has doubled
  • Kinked tails and testicle problem dropped significantly
  • The heterozygosity increased a lot!
10
Q

Genetic rescue of Scandinavian grey wolf (Canis lupus):

A
  • Mitochondrial (MtDNA) marker (female tracking)
  • Y-chromosome marker (male tracking)
  • Nuclear markers (SSRs)
  • One male immigrant increased the population size a lot and also increased the level of heterozygosity
11
Q

The giant panda genome:

A
  • All genes regquired for carnivirous digestion are present but they don’t eat it
  • Non-functional T1R1 gene due to frameshift error, unable to form T1R1/T1R3 hterodimer receptor, so unable to taste glutamic acids explaining their lack of interest in meat
  • Could we make them eat meat again?
  • Absense of genes for digesting cellulose (bamboo), which is all they eat
  • Test gut microbiome
  • High level of heterozygosity, no lack of genetic diversity