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- Bensch, Staffan, et al.
(author)
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Selection for Heterozygosity Gives Hope to a Wild Population of Inbred Wolves
- 2006
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In: PLoS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 1:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent analyses have questioned the usefulness of heterozygosity estimates as measures of the inbreeding coefficient (f ), a finding that may have dramatic consequences for the management of endangered populations. We confirm that f and heterozygosity is poorly correlated in a wild and highly inbred wolf population. Yet, our data show that for each level of f, it was the most heterozygous wolves that established themselves as breeders, a selection process that seems to have decelerated the loss of heterozygosity in the population despite a steady increase of f. The markers contributing to the positive relationship between heterozygosity and breeding success were found to be located on different chromosomes, but there was a substantial amount of linkage disequilibrium in the population, indicating that the markers are reflecting heterozygosity over relatively wide genomic regions. Following our results we recommend that management programs of endangered populations include estimates of both f and heterozygosity, as they may contribute with complementary information about population viability.
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| 3. |
- Liberg, O, et al.
(author)
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Severe inbreeding depression in a wild wolf (Canis lupus) population
- 2005
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In: Biology letters. - : The Royal Society. - 1744-9561 .- 1744-957X. ; 1:1, s. 17-20
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The difficulty of obtaining pedigrees for wild populations has hampered the possibility of demonstrating inbreeding depression in nature. In a small, naturally restored, wild population of grey wolves in Scandinavia, founded in 1983, we constructed a pedigree for 24 of the 28 breeding pairs established in the period 1983-2002. Ancestry for the breeding animals was determined through a combination of field data (snow tracking and radio telemetry) and DNA microsatellite analysis. The population was founded by only three individuals. The inbreeding coefficient F varied between 0.00 and 0.41 for wolves born during the study period. The number of surviving pups per litter during their first winter after birth was strongly correlated with inbreeding coefficients of pups (R-2 = 0. 39, p < 0.00 1). This inbreeding depression was recalculated to match standard estimates of lethal equivalents (213), corresponding to 6.04 (2.58-9.48, 95% CI) litter-size-reducing equivalents in this wolf population.
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