Thursday, September 3, 2015

Using Genetic Diversity to Find Potentially Endangered Species

Statistics may help in identifying species that will soon become endangered, allowing conservation groups to intervene before it is too late.

Cheetahs are poster children for low genetic diversity,
as they can barely breed to due to how inbred the population is.
Photograph credit: Diana Robinson on flikr
A Purdue University study led by Janna Willoughby estimates likelihood of extinction of a species by by seeing how genetically diverse a species is. Genetic diversity is the frequency of different alleles in a population. The more diverse a population is, the more likely it is to contain individuals who can adapt and survive changes in environment.

Previously, endangered species were identified by number of mature adults, range size, and any evidence of population decline. The study has found that species listed as threatened show decreased genetic diversity. As it stands now, genetic diversity does not factor into a species being labeled as threatened. If a species is numerous in population but has low genetic diversity, it wouldn't be put on the list of threatened species until the population falls below a threshold. And smaller populations encourage inbreeding and suffer from loss of diversity, which can start a vicious cycle that could catapult the species into more danger.

Hopefully, once the team's methods are perfected, they may end up helping conserve species that we previously didn't think needed such help.

You can read the full news article here
To see Willoughby's early paper, click here or wait for the November issue of Biological Conservation

2 comments:

  1. I think this topic presents a serious solution to a problem that is almost invisible- most people do not realize how endangered species come to be so. Predicting which species will go into decline before it happens can save more species from dying out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think this topic presents a serious solution to a problem that is almost invisible- most people do not realize how endangered species come to be so. Predicting which species will go into decline before it happens can save more species from dying out.

    ReplyDelete