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Conservation implications of limited genetic diversity and population structure in Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii)
- Source :
- Conservation Genetics. 18:977-982
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Tasmanian devils face a combination of threats to persistence, including Devil Facial Tumor Disease (DFTD), an epidemic transmissible cancer. We used RAD sequencing to investigate genome-wide patterns of genetic diversity and geographic population structure. Consistent with previous results, we found very low genetic diversity in the species as a whole, and we detected two broad genetic clusters occupying the northwestern portion of the range, and the central and eastern portions. However, these two groups overlap across a broad geographic area, and differentiation between them is modest (FST = 0.1081). Our results refine the geographic extent of the zone of mixed ancestry and substructure within it, potentially informing management of genetic variation that existed in pre-diseased populations of the species. DFTD has spread across both genetic clusters, but recent evidence points to a genomic response to selection imposed by DFTD. Any allelic variation for resistance to DFTD may be able to spread across the devil population under selection by DFTD, and/or be present as standing variation in both genetic regions.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
education.field_of_study
Genetic diversity
biology
Ecology
Range (biology)
Population
Biodiversity
biology.organism_classification
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Gene flow
03 medical and health sciences
030104 developmental biology
Sarcophilus
Population bottleneck
Evolutionary biology
Genetic variation
Genetics
education
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15729737 and 15660621
- Volume :
- 18
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Conservation Genetics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........37a9ff5faa5a8da2e48d72767a7db2c2