Structural variations in crocodile lizard populations provide novel insights into genomic variations in endangered animals

Abstract

Population‐scale genome resequencing of endangered animals may contribute to gaining an understanding of how genomes vary as population sizes become smaller, as well as the functional implications of such variation. In this study, we analysed structural variations and gene presence and absence variations in the genomes of population of the endangered crocodile lizards. We found that the frequencies of some genes showed significant differences between crocodile lizards in different regions, indicating the influence of environmental selection, as well as potential contributions from demography and isolation, in shaping gene presence and absence variations. The haplotype diversity of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes was also found to differ among crocodile lizards inhabiting different regions. These findings indicate that well‐designed interbreeding of crocodile lizards from different regions may facilitate the exchange of genes between different lizard populations and increase the haplotype diversity of MHC genes, which may be beneficial for the survival of these lizards. Our findings in this study, based on differences in gene structural variation, provide new insights into genomic variation and may contribute to the conservation of endangered animals.