Conservation Genetics of Amazon River Turtles, Genus Podocnemis (Pelomedusidae)

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9602993 Sites "CONSERVATION GENETICS OF AMAZON RIVER TURTLES, GENUS PODOCNEMIS (PELOMEDUSIDAE)." The grant for cooperative research between Jack Sites of the Department of Zoology, Brigham Young University, and Craig Moritz of the Department of Zoology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, will provide three months of support for Dr. Sites in Australia as part of a longer visit. Sites will work in the Laboratory of Conservation Genetics, with C. Moritz and N. FitzSimmons, to learn methods of microsatellite development and analysis for application to an endangered reptile. Sites will screen several nesting rookeries of the Amazon River Turtles (Podocnemis expansa and P. unifilis) for mitochondrial (mtDNA) and nuclear (microsatellite) genetic markers to estimate patterns and levels of female (mtDNA) and male (microsatellite) gene flow within and between river basins in the Brazilian Amazon. Sites will learn both new molecular methods which will strengthen his program, and benefit from the pool of expertise available in the Moritz lab, especially their experience in addressing similar questions in marine turtles. Moritz and FitzSimmons will benefit from learning about the application of their methods to a new species of colonial-nesting turtle, and by extension to conservation issues in the Neotropics in general. Both will also meet the Brazilian coordinator of this effort, Dr. Nelson J. da Silva, who has secured government permission for this project, and has collected some of the samples. Sites will prepare a full proposal for submission to the National Science Foundation from these data upon completion of his stay.