Integrating genomics into conservation management

Abstract

Reintroductions are a powerful tool in species conservation. Hundreds of species have benefited from reintroductions, and they have been effective in curbing the accelerating loss of biodiversity (Soorae, 2018, Brichieri-Colombi and Moehrenschlager 2019). The ultimate goal of a reintroduction is to attain long-term persistence without human intervention. Genetic diversity is central to this goal, contributing to a species' adaptive potential and promoting biodiversity and ecosystem integrity. Seeded with abundant genetic diversity, a reintroduced population can grow and become self-sustaining. Initial sampling of founders is a critical component of population establishment. Founding a reintroduction with a large number of unrelated individuals maximizes genetic diversity and provides a solid foundation for a successful reintroduction. Mixing founders from genetically differentiated source populations can better represent species-wide genetic variation (McLennan, Grueber, Wise, Belov, & Hogg, 2020; Ralls et al., 2018). To identify valuable source populations and develop a plan to sample them, it is necessary to survey potential source populations. Surveys naturally include any remnant populations in the wild, and frequently incorporate studbook-managed captive populations (e.g., in zoos). Zoo-based captive breeding programmes aim to maintain gene diversity in populations over the long term through prioritized pairings that minimize mean kinship and thus sustain a valuable reservoir of genetic variation. Broadening our view to consider the entire in situ/ex situ spectrum reveals the potential value of semicaptive populations in private collections or ranches. These animals are typically managed using less stringent (or no) genetic management practices compared to zoo breeding programmes, yet they conceivably represent an untapped reservoir of genetic variation for conservation management. Humble et al. (2020) apply a genomics approach to survey genetic variation in source populations of the scimitar-horned oryx (Oryx dammah), a species declared extinct in the wild (Figure 1). Captive populations exist in European, North American and Australian zoos, but most remaining animals are held within

Current applications and future promise of genetic/genomic data for conservation in an Aotearoa New Zealand context

“…Microarrays have been employed to investigate genotype-phenotype associations, trait heritability, population demographics and signatures of inbreeding in livestock and wild populations (Angeloni et al, 2012;Dutsch et al, 2020;Latch, 2020;Toro et al, 2014).…”

Editorial 2021

“…A comparison of double‐digest RADseq de novo assembly software (LaCava et al., 2020; Perspective by Marrano et al., 2020) was published that assists researchers to navigate across available software programs. The genome assembly of the extinct‐in‐the‐wild scimitar‐horned oryx demonstrated the utility of genomes in conservation (Humble et al., 2020; Perspective by Latch, 2020). Another highlight was the Genomic Observatories Metadatabase (GEOME) that links ecological and genomic data for maximal utility of both data sets for molecular ecology studies (Riginos et al., 2020; Editorial by Sibbett et al., 2020).…”

Genetic Differentiation of Reintroduced Père David’s Deer (Elaphurus davidianus) Based on Population Genomics Analysis

“…In theory, the source of reintroduced populations is limited because of a small population size of founder individuals, which would result in a low level of genetic diversity and limited gene flow (Stewart et al, 2017;Ovenden et al, 2019). This means it is necessary to conduct population genetics after reintroduction, however, such post-reintroduction evaluation is unfortunately inadequate (Moseby et al, 2020), and genetic consequences following wild release still remain unknown for many cases (La Haye et al, 2017).…”