Lecture 20

Question 1

Conservation biologists have two challenges:

Answer 1

• Which ones are boys, which ones are girls?

- How related are they?

Question 2

To determine sex for each bird:

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Screen micro satellite markers for each bird:

Answer 3

• Determine relatedness based on microsatellite data

- Negative result means they are the least related

Question 4

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

Answer 4

• A breeding program is designed to minimise inbreeding

Question 5

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

Answer 5

• 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

Question 6

How did they avoid extinction?

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What was the result of the introduced females?

Answer 7

• They thrived!

- Monitoring of the population showed great admixture of genetic material

Question 8

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

Answer 8

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

Question 9

How effective was the program?

Answer 9

• 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!

Question 10

Genetic rescue of Scandinavian grey wolf (Canis lupus):

Answer 10

• 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

Question 11

The giant panda genome:

Answer 11

• 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