Comparative Conservation Genomics of an Endangered Cooperative Breeder: The African Wild Dog

由于遗传漂变和近亲繁殖等过程，小种群面临着更高的灭绝风险。这些过程使小种群同质化，降低了它们的适应潜力，暴露了隐性有害等位基因。这些遗传过程可能会加剧合作繁殖的物种，社会抑制繁殖可以大大减少有效的人口规模（Ne）。与此同时，避免近亲繁殖的行为可能会阻止极小种群的繁殖。了解这些影响的社会行为的遗传学和小种群的生存能力，可能有很大的保护重要性。非洲野狗（Lycaon pictus）是全球濒危的合作繁殖犬科动物。大多数种群<10包，大多数包包括一个单一的繁殖对。在重新引入的种群中，遗传多样性在整个管理易位过程中得以维持，但这种遗传管理从未在其他地方进行过。该项目将利用塞内加尔和肯尼亚小种群以及南部非洲大种群的样本，量化已知瓶颈之后的遗传结构和基因组多样性损失，评估不同规模和隔离程度种群中近亲繁殖和避免近亲繁殖的影响。这样做，它将有助于为有关这一高度濒危物种的遗传管理的保护决定提供信息。

Small populations face elevated extinction risks due to processes such as genetic drift and inbreeding. These processes work to homogenise small populations, reducing their adaptive potential and exposing recessive deleterious alleles. These genetic processes may be exacerbated in cooperatively-breeding species, where the social suppression of reproduction can greatly reduce effective population size (Ne). At the same time, behavioural avoidance of inbreeding can halt reproduction in exceedingly small populations. Understanding these impacts of social behaviour on the genetics and viability of small populations, may have great conservation importance. The African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is a globally endangered cooperatively-breeding canid. Most populations <10 packs, and most packs include a single breeding pair. In reintroduced populations, genetic diversity is maintained throughout managed translocations, but such genetic management has never been conducted elsewhere. Drawing on samples from small populations in Senegal and Kenya, and larger populations in southern Africa, this project will quantify genetic structure and loss of genomic diversity following known bottlenecks, assessing impacts of inbreeding and inbreeding avoidance in populations of varying size and degree of isolation. In so doing, it will help inform conservation decisions about the genetic management of this highly endangered species.