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Genetic load and adaptive potential of a recovered avian species that narrowly avoided extinction

Femerling, Georgette and Van Oosterhout, Cock and Feng, Shaohong and Bristol, Rachel M. and Zhang, Guojie and Groombridge, Jim J. and Gilbert, M. Thomas P. and Morales, Hernán E. (2022) Genetic load and adaptive potential of a recovered avian species that narrowly avoided extinction. [Preprint] (Submitted) (doi:10.1101/2022.12.20.521169) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:99466)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.12.20.521169

Abstract

High genetic diversity is often a good predictor of long-term population viability, yet some species persevere despite having low genetic diversity. Here we study the genomic erosion of the Seychelles paradise flycatcher (Terpsiphone corvina), a species that narrowly avoided extinction after having declined to 28 individuals in the 1960s. The species recovered unassisted to over 250 individuals in the 1990s and was downlisted from Critically Endangered to Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List in 2020. By comparing historical, pre-bottleneck (130+ years old) and modern genomes, we uncovered a 10-fold loss of genetic diversity. The genome shows signs of historical inbreeding during the bottleneck in the 1960s, but low levels of recent inbreeding after the demographic recovery. We show that the proportion of severely deleterious mutations has reduced in modern individuals, but mildly deleterious mutations have remained unchanged. Computer simulations suggest that the Seychelles paradise flycatcher avoided extinction and recovered due to its long-term small Ne. This reduced the masked load and made the species more resilient to inbreeding. However, we also show that the chronically small Ne and the severe bottleneck resulted in very low genetic diversity in the modern population. Our simulations show this is likely to reduce the species’ adaptive potential when faced with environmental change, thereby compromising its long-term population viability. In light of rapid global rates of population decline, our work highlights the importance of considering genomic erosion and computer modelling in conservation assessments

Item Type: Preprint
DOI/Identification number: 10.1101/2022.12.20.521169
Refereed: No
Name of pre-print platform: bioRxiv
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Funders: University of Kent (https://ror.org/00xkeyj56)
Depositing User: Jim Groombridge
Date Deposited: 10 Jan 2023 10:24 UTC
Last Modified: 27 Nov 2023 09:41 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/99466 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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