scholarly journals Genetic Diversity and Genetic Structure of the Wild Tsushima Leopard Cat from Genome-Wide Analysis

Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1375
Author(s):  
Hideyuki Ito ◽  
Nobuyoshi Nakajima ◽  
Manabu Onuma ◽  
Miho Murayama

The Tsushima leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus) lives on Tsushima Island in Japan and is a regional population of the Amur leopard cat; it is threatened with extinction. Its genetic management is important because of the small population. We used genotyping by random amplicon sequencing-direct (GRAS-Di) to develop a draft genome and explore single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. The SNPs were analyzed using three genotyping methods (mapping de novo, to the Tsushima leopard cat draft genome, and to the domestic cat genome). We examined the genetic diversity and genetic structure of the Tsushima leopard cat. The genome size was approximately 2.435 Gb. The number of SNPs identified was 133–158. The power of these markers was sufficient for individual and parentage identifications. These SNPs can provide useful information about the life of the Tsushima leopard cat and the pairings and for the introduction of founders to conserve genetic diversity with ex situ conservation. We identified that there are no subpopulations of the Tsushima leopard cat. The identifying units will allow for a concentration of efforts for conservation. SNPs can be applied to the analysis of the leopard cat in other regions, making them useful for comparisons among populations and conservation in other small populations.

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hideyuki Ito ◽  
Miho Inoue-Murayama

We examined genetic diversity of the wild Tsushima leopard cat—a regional population of the Amur leopard cat—using microsatellite markers. In addition, we compared genetic diversity of the Tsushima leopard cat with that of the Korean population of Amur leopard cat. Although bias should be considered when applying cross-species amplification, the Tsushima leopard cat showed a lower index of molecular genetic diversity than did the Korean population. These results were consistent with those obtained using other genetic markers, such as mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome sequences. This low genetic diversity of the wild Tsushima leopard cat may be derived from the founding population. Furthermore, our results suggest that the captive populations held in Japanese zoos may show extremely low genetic diversity, leading to difficulties in genetic management of the Tsushima leopard cat. Moreover, the two regional populations were clearly separated using these marker sets. In the present study, we demonstrated that the genetic diversity of the Tsushima leopard cat is extremely low compared with that of the continental regional population. Importantly, the Japanese captive population for ex situ conservation was derived from a founding population with extremely low genetic diversity; hence, we assume that both the captive and wild populations showed extremely low genetic diversities. Our findings emphasize the need to develop carefully considered management strategies for genetic conservation.


Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 139
Author(s):  
Marlien M. van der Merwe ◽  
Jia-Yee S. Yap ◽  
Peter D. Wilson ◽  
Helen T. Murphy ◽  
Andrew Ford

Maximising genetic diversity in conservation efforts can help to increase the chances of survival of a species amidst the turbulence of the anthropogenic age. Here, we define the distribution and extent of genomic diversity across the range of the iconic but threatened Acacia purpureopetala, a beautiful sprawling shrub with mauve flowers, restricted to a few disjunct populations in far north Queensland, Australia. Seed production is poor and germination sporadic, but the species occurs in abundance at some field sites. While several thousands of SNP markers were recovered, comparable to other Acacia species, very low levels of heterozygosity and allelic variation suggested inbreeding. Limited dispersal most likely contributed towards the high levels of divergence amongst field sites and, using a generalised dissimilarity modelling framework amongst environmental, spatial and floristic data, spatial distance was found to be the strongest factor explaining the current distribution of genetic diversity. We illustrate how population genomic data can be utilised to design a collecting strategy for a germplasm conservation collection that optimises genetic diversity. For this species, inclusion of all field sites will capture maximum genetic diversity for both in situ and ex situ conservation. Assisted cross pollination, within and between field sites and genetically structured groups, is recommended to enhance heterozygosity particularly at the most disjunct sites and further fragmentation should be discouraged to avoid loss of genetic connectivity.


Biology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 36
Author(s):  
Te-Hua Hsu ◽  
Yu-Ting Chiu ◽  
Hung-Tai Lee ◽  
Hong-Yi Gong ◽  
Chang-Wen Huang

The accuracy and efficiency of marker-assisted selection (MAS) has been proven for economically critical aquaculture species. The potato grouper (Epinephelus tukula), a novel cultured grouper species in Taiwan, shows large potential in aquaculture because of its fast growth rate among other groupers. Because of the lack of genetic information for the potato grouper, the first transcriptome and expressed sequence tag (EST)-derived simple sequence repeat (SSR) and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers were developed. Initially, the transcriptome was obtained from seven cDNA libraries by using the Illumina platform. De novo transcriptome of the potato grouper yielded 51.34 Gb and 111,490 unigenes. The EST-derived SSR and SNP markers were applied in genetic management, in parentage analysis, and to discover the functional markers of economic traits. The F1 juveniles were identified as siblings from one pair of parents (80 broodstocks). Fast- and slow-growth individuals were analyzed using functional molecular markers and through their association with growth performance. The results revealed that two SNPs were correlated with growth traits. The transcriptome database obtained in this study and its derived SSR and SNP markers may be applied not only for MAS but also to maintain functional gene diversity in the novel cultured grouper.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. e0247586
Author(s):  
Christine E. Edwards ◽  
Brooke C. Tessier ◽  
Joel F. Swift ◽  
Burgund Bassüner ◽  
Alexander G. Linan ◽  
...  

Understanding genetic diversity and structure in a rare species is critical for prioritizing both in situ and ex situ conservation efforts. One such rare species is Physaria filiformis (Brassicaceae), a threatened, winter annual plant species. The species has a naturally fragmented distribution, occupying three different soil types spread across four disjunct geographical locations in Missouri and Arkansas. The goals of this study were to understand: (1) whether factors associated with fragmentation and small population size (i.e., inbreeding, genetic drift or genetic bottlenecks) have reduced levels of genetic diversity, (2) how genetic variation is structured and which factors have influenced genetic structure, and (3) how much extant genetic variation of P. filiformis is currently publicly protected and the implications for the development of conservation strategies to protect its genetic diversity. Using 16 microsatellite markers, we genotyped individuals from 20 populations of P. filiformis from across its geographical range and one population of Physaria gracilis for comparison and analyzed genetic diversity and structure. Populations of P. filiformis showed comparable levels of genetic diversity to its congener, except a single population in northwest Arkansas showed evidence of a genetic bottleneck and two populations in the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas showed lower genetic variation, consistent with genetic drift. Populations showed isolation by distance, indicating that migration is geographically limited, and analyses of genetic structure grouped individuals into seven geographically structured genetic clusters, with geographic location/spatial separation showing a strong influence on genetic structure. At least one population is protected for all genetic clusters except one in north-central Arkansas, which should therefore be prioritized for protection. Populations in the Ouachita Mountains were genetically divergent from the rest of P. filiformis; future morphological analyses are needed to identify whether it merits recognition as a new, extremely rare species.


2006 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khongsak Thiangtum ◽  
William F. Swanson ◽  
JoGayle Howard ◽  
Wanchai Tunwattana ◽  
Dakara Tongthainan ◽  
...  

Conservation of the fishing cat, a threatened south-east Asian felid, could benefit from effective ex situ genetic management and breeding programmes, including the use of assisted reproduction. The aims of the present study were to: (1) characterise basal seminal traits of fishing cats in Thailand zoos; and (2) investigate the effect of cryopreservation on sperm motility, acrosomal integrity and in vitro function. Seminal traits were evaluated in electroejaculates collected from eight males. Spermatozoa were diluted in n-tris(hydroxymethyl)-methyl-2-aminoethanesulfonic acid Tris (TEST)-yolk buffer (TYB) without glycerol, then diluted further with TYB with glycerol (4% final concentration) at either 25°C or after slow cooling to 5°C and frozen in straws over liquid nitrogen vapour. After thawing, sperm function was assessed by insemination of viable domestic cat oocytes. Fishing cat ejaculates averaged (± s.e.m.) 43.6 ± 14.2 × 106 motile spermatozoa with 33.5 ± 6.8% normal sperm morphology. Semen processing had a negligible effect (P > 0.05) on sperm motility and acrosomal integrity, but values were reduced (P < 0.05) after thawing. All thawed samples fertilised domestic cat oocytes, with 62.1% (36/58) of mature oocytes cleaving. Glycerol addition at 5°C resulted in higher (P < 0.05) post-thaw motility and intact acrosomes than glycerol addition at 25°C. In conclusion, good-quality ejaculates can be obtained from Thai fishing cats and their spermatozoa exhibit adequate function after cryopreservation for in vitro fertilisation procedures.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nesty Pratiwi Romadini ◽  
Sapto Indrioko ◽  
Widiyatno WIDIYATNO ◽  
Eny Faridah ◽  
Yeni Widyana Nurchahyani Ratnaningrum

Abstract. Romadini NP, Indrioko S, Widiyatno, Faridah E, Ratnaningrum YWN. 2021. Genetic diversity in seedling populations of Dipterocarpus gracilis in Kecubung Ulolanang Nature Conservation Reserve, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 1138-1145. Dipterocarpus gracilis Blume is one of the native Dipterocarpus species in Java Island, Indonesia. It has commercial value as timber (wood) and non-timber forest products (oleoresin). This species has been considered vulnerable following the Red List of Threatened Species criteria by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). We aimed to study the genetic diversity and genetic structure of seedlings as the natural regenerating population of Dipterocarpus gracilis Blume in The Kecubung Ulolanang Nature Conservation Reserve, Batang District, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The D. gracilis population in this area is distributed in four zones. We observed a total of 137 juvenile seedlings representing all the zones. Isozyme markers detected the genetic diversity of D. gracilis by peroxidase (PRX), esterase (EST), and acid phosphatase (ACP) enzymes. The mean observed heterozygosity of all the zones was lower (HO=0.078) than expected heterozygosity (HE=0.203). Genetic depletion occurred because of genetic drifts and founder effects due to low parental diversity. The genetic structure of seedlings is similar to the consequence of inbreeding. We conclude that the genetic diversity of D. gracilis decreases when mature trees are reduced. This population has essential values ​​in Java Island and should be a priority evaluation in the in-situ and ex-situ conservation of genetic resources.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Dinh Vu ◽  
Syed Noor Muhammad Shah ◽  
Mai Phuong Pham ◽  
Van Thang Bui ◽  
Minh Tam Nguyen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Understanding the genetic diversity in threatened species that occur in forest remnants is necessary to establish efficient strategies for the species conservation, restoration and management. Panax vietnamensis Ha et Grushv. is medicinally important, endemic and endangered species of Vietnam. However, genetic diversity and structure of population is unknown due to lack of efficient molecular markers.Results: In this study, we employed Illumina HiSeq TM 4000 sequencing to analyze the transcriptomes of P. vietnamensis (roots, leaves and stems). A total of 23,741,783 raw reads were obtained and assembled, from which, 89,271 unigenes with an average length of 598.3191 nt were generated. During functional annotation, 31,686 unigenes were annotated in Gene Ontology categories, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways, Swiss-Prot database, and Nucleotide Collection (NR/NT) database. In addition, 11,343 expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSRs) were detected. From 7,774 primer pairs, 101 were selected for polymorphism validation, in which, 20 primer pairs were successfully amplified to DNA fragments and significant amounts of polymorphism was observed within population. The nine polymorphic microsatellite loci were used to analyze genetic diversity and structure of the natural populations. The obtained results revealed that the shows high levels of genetic diversity in populations, the average observed and expected heterozygosity were H O = 0.422 and H E = 0.479. During the Bottleneck analysis using TPM and SMM models (p < 0.01) shows that targeted population is significantly heterozygote deficient. This suggests sign of bottleneck in all populations. Genetic differentiation among populations was moderate (F ST = 0.133) and indicating limited gene flow (Nm = 1.63). Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed 63.17% of variation within individuals and 12.45% among populations. These results showed a moderate genetic structure of P. vietnamensis. STRUCTURE analysis and the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) tree revealed strong genetic structure and two genetic clusters related to geographical distances, as well. Conclusion: Our study will assist conservators in future conservation management, breeding, production and habitats restoration of the species.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Duy Dinh Vu ◽  
Syed Noor Muhammad Shah ◽  
Mai Phuong Pham ◽  
Van Thang Bui ◽  
Minh Tam Nguyen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Understanding the genetic diversity in threatened species that occur in forest remnants is necessary to establish efficient strategies for the species conservation, restoration and management. Panax vietnamensis Ha et Grushv. is medicinally important, endemic and endangered species of Vietnam. However, genetic diversity and structure of population is unknown due to lack of efficient molecular markers. Results: In this study, we employed Illumina HiSeq TM 4000 sequencing to analyze the transcriptomes of P. vietnamensis (roots, leaves and stems). A total of 23,741,783 raw reads were obtained and assembled, from which, 89,271 unigenes with an average length of 598.3191 nt were generated. During functional annotation, 31,686 unigenes were annotated in Gene Ontology categories, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathways, Swiss-Prot database, and Nucleotide Collection (NR/NT) database. In addition, 11,343 expressed sequence tag-simple sequence repeat (EST-SSRs) were detected. From 7,774 primer pairs, 101 were selected for polymorphism validation, in which, 20 primer pairs were successfully amplified to DNA fragments and significant amounts of polymorphism was observed within population. The nine polymorphic microsatellite loci were used to analyze genetic diversity and structure of the natural populations. The obtained results revealed that the shows high levels of genetic diversity in populations, the average observed and expected heterozygosity were H O = 0.422 and H E = 0.479. During the Bottleneck analysis using TPM and SMM models (p < 0.01) shows that targeted population is significantly heterozygote deficient. This suggests sign of bottleneck in all populations. Genetic differentiation among populations was moderate (F ST = 0.133) and indicating limited gene flow (Nm = 1.63). Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) showed 63.17% of variation within individuals and 12.45% among populations. These results showed a moderate genetic structure of P. vietnamensis. STRUCTURE analysis and the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic means (UPGMA) tree revealed strong genetic structure and two genetic clusters related to geographical distances, as well. Conclusion: Our study will assist conservators in future conservation management, breeding, production and habitats restoration of the species.


Author(s):  
Kimberley G. Barrett ◽  
Geneviève Amaral ◽  
Melanie Elphinstone ◽  
Malcolm L. McAdie ◽  
Corey S. Davis ◽  
...  

AbstractCaptive breeding is often a last resort management option in the conservation of endangered species which can in turn lead to increased risk of inbreeding depression and loss of genetic diversity. Thus, recording breeding events via studbook for the purpose of estimating relatedness, and facilitating mating pair selection to minimize inbreeding, is common practice. However, as founder relatedness is often unknown, loss of genetic variation and inbreeding cannot be entirely avoided. Molecular genotyping is slowly being adopted in captive breeding programs, however achieving sufficient resolution can be challenging in small, low diversity, populations. Here, we evaluate the success of the Vancouver Island marmot (Marmota vancouverensis; VIM; among the worlds most endangered mammals) captive breeding program in preventing inbreeding and maintaining genetic diversity. We explored the use of high-throughput amplicon sequencing of microsatellite regions to assay greater genetic variation in both captive and wild populations than traditional length-based fragment analysis. Contrary to other studies, this method did not considerably increase diversity estimates, suggesting: (1) that the technique does not universally improve resolution, and (2) VIM have exceedingly low diversity. Studbook estimates of pairwise relatedness and inbreeding in the current population were weakly, but positively, correlated to molecular estimates. Thus, current studbooks are moderately effective at predicting genetic similarity when founder relatedness is known. Finally, we found that captive and wild populations did not differ in allelic frequencies, and conservation efforts to maintain diversity have been successful with no significant decrease in diversity over the last three generations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliana De Freitas Encinas Dardengo ◽  
Ana Aparecida Bandini Rossi ◽  
Bruna Mezzalira da Silva ◽  
Ivone Vieira da Silva ◽  
Carolina Joana da Silva ◽  
...  

The quantification of genetic diversity and intrapopulation spatial genetic structure (SGS) of tree species are important aspects for in and ex situ conservation practices. In this study we seek to understand the importance of conservation areas by quantifying the genetic diversity and the spatial genetic structure of a natural population of Theobroma speciosum. Within this population, 49 adults and 51 subadults were genotyped for five microsatellite loci. The results showed that adults and subadults have similar levels of genetic diversity and inbreeding (adults: A= 10.4, Ae = 10.3, F= 0.68, subadults: A= 10.6, Ae= 10.6, F= 0.57). Genetic diversity was spatially structured within the population, and the results suggest that near-neighbor trees up to a distance of 70 m are likely related. SGS is likely the result of short-distance seed dispersal, the short-distance range of pollinators, and infrequent breaches of the self-incompatible mating system. Considering the high demographic density of the species and size of the study area, as well as the high average number of alleles per locus and the presence of rare alleles, we believe that the study population is an excellent resource for in situ genetic conservation of T. speciosum. The study area is also a useful resource for collecting germplasm for ex situ conservation and seed collection, either for breeding programs used in the restoration of degraded areas or forest improvement. 


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