Andean and California condors possess dissimilar genetic composition but exhibit similar demographic histories

Abstract

Genetic diversity is widely recognized as centrally important for biodiversity assessment and conservation planning (Willoughby et al., 2015). Such focus is especially important when considering threatened and endangered species as they typically display low levels of genetic diversity, which can lead to reduced adaptive potential to environmental change (Bijlsma & Loeschcke, 2012). A common strategy to restore genetic diversity is the translocation of individuals to augment small and declining populations (Moritz, 1999; Whiteley et al., 2015). However, the motivation for restoring genetic diversity is often based on genetic surveys of modern populations, which assumes that past genetic diversity was always higher (Matocq & Villablanca, 2001; Napier et al., 2020). Nevertheless, long-term effects of translocations have been rarely assessed, and findings are inconsistent across systems: Some translocations have succeeded in increasing population fitness by incorporating new alleles (Johnson et al., 2010; Whiteley et al., 2015), while others have failed by

Genome-wide diversity in the California condor tracks its prehistoric abundance and decline

“…Our finding that the Andean condor had historically low abundance is consistent with its limited distribution and with previous work showing low diversity at hypervariable loci in contemporary and historic samples. 38,39,42,43 The demographic history we inferred for the turkey vulture is largely consistent with previous studies. 31,44 Interestingly, our results show that the turkey vulture was historically less abundant than the California condor, though it is the most abundant and wide-ranging New World vulture today.…”

“…34,36,37 However, recent studies of mitochondrial diversity in California and Andean condors found evidence of demographic expansion around this time, perhaps as a consequence of reduced competition from other vulture species that went extinct. 38,39 We found evidence of population expansion before an ultimate decline in all three species, potentially reflecting a similar trend. Our results suggest these declines may have begun prior to the purported timing of Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions in the Americas, 37,40,41 but the precise times we inferred hinge on uncertain mutation rate and generation time parameters used in rescaling.…”

Mitogenomic analysis of extant condor species provides insight into the molecular evolution of vultures

“…2 b) is consistent with the expectation that regions exhibiting the greatest interspecific variability tend to vary the most within species 56 . However, we found that most of the intraspecific variability reported in the Andean condor 2 , 35 was situated between the Bird Box and CSB1, while the third domain showed an unusually invariant pattern (Fig. 2 b), suggesting the existence of functional constraints on this region.…”

“…Previous analysis using historical samples of California condors from the nineteenth century revealed that the remarkable low levels of mtDNA diversity found in extant individuals are a direct consequence of recent human action 18 . Unlike the California condor, however, recent studies of the Andean condor including museum samples collected across their historical range almost two centuries ago revealed that although this species lost significant genetic variation during the early twentieth century, low mtDNA diversity is mostly ancient 2 . Notwithstanding, Andean condors from the southern Andes still retain normal levels of nuclear genetic variation 21 , 22 , suggesting that evolutionary constraints on genetic diversity only affected the mitochondrial genome.…”

DNA barcoding of Macrocephalon maleo originating from Sulawesi, Indonesia

“…Data were obtained through a series of scientific studies, including molecular species identification (barcoding), genetic variation and adaptation to environmental changing responses. Conservation approaches involving molecular parts have been applied to the Andean Condor (Vultur gryphus) and the California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus) (Padro et al 2020). The results showed that the Andean condor lost about 17% of genetic variability compared to the California Condor and these species also used the same demographic area.…”