Conservation genomics of endangered bird species in zoos

世界自然保护联盟濒危物种红色名录评估没有使用遗传或基因组数据，这可能导致对灭绝风险的严重低估，以及不理想的保护管理。此外，红色名录评估没有利用在动物园收集的健康和血统数据。这些数据对于了解物种对近亲繁殖的反应以及为当地的保护策略提供信息是非常宝贵的。ARIES博士项目将开展改进鸟类灭绝风险评估、动物园和自然环境中鸟类保护管理的研究。世界自然保护联盟认识到需要改进红色名录的评估，他们已经成立了保护遗传学专家组（CGSG）。通过改善大学、世界自然保护联盟和动物园之间的合作和交流，可以在保护方面取得重大进展。该学生将有助于巩固现有的联系，并在基因组学和保护生物学方面进行世界级的研究。具体而言，本博士研究项目的目标是：(1)对至少4种鸟类进行全基因组序列分析，以估计当前和过去的近亲繁殖水平；(2)分析家谱数据，计算鸟类近交系数；(3)进行定量遗传分析，计算各物种的遗传负荷（即致死当量数）；(4)利用涡旋[3]模型进行种群生存力分析（PVA）；(5)在研讨会和讲习班（动物园、EAZA、IUCN）上向保护从业者传达研究结果，在会议上发表论文，撰写科学文章。

The IUCN Red List assessment of endangered species does not make use of genetic or genomic data, potentially leading to a serious underestimation of the extinction risk, and suboptimal conservation management. In addition, the Red List assessment does not make use of fitness and pedigree data collected in zoos. These data are invaluable to understand a species response to inbreeding and to inform conservation strategies in-situ. The proposed ARIES PhD project will conduct research to improve the assessment of extinction risk of bird species, and their conservation management in zoos and in the natural environment. The IUCN recognises the need to improve the Red List assessment, and they have set up the Conservation Genetics Specialist Group (CGSG). A significant advance in conservation can be made by improving the collaboration and communication between universities, the IUCN and zoos. The student will be instrumental in cementing the existing links, and conducting world-class research in genomics and conservation biology. In particular, the objectives of this PhD research project are: (1) perform whole genome sequence analysis of at least 4 bird species to estimate the current and past level of inbreeding; (2) analyse pedigree data to calculate the inbreeding coefficients of birds; (3) conduct quantitative genetic analysis to calculate the genetic load (i.e. number of lethal equivalents) of each species; (4) Use these data in a population viability analysis (PVA) with the model Vortex [3]; (5) Communicate the findings to conservation practitioners in seminars and workshops (in zoos, EAZA, IUCN), present on conferences, and write scientific articles.