Saving Every Type of Tiger Left Through Genetics

Tigers around the world have been going instinct and are now endangered. Less than 4,000 tigers remain in the wild. A century ago, about 100,000 tigers roamed Asia's forests. But now most tigers survive in captivity than in the wild due to habitat destruction, poaching, and more. Molecular geneticist, Dr. Shu-Jin Luo from the Peking University, conducted a study in order to account all types of tiger subspecies that are left to properly save them. Latest analyses confirmed nine total subspecies with six of them still living: Bengel, Amur, South China, Sumatran, Indochinese, and Malayan. The Caspian, Javan, and Bali tigers already have been lost to extinction.

Compared to Dr. Lou's and her colleagues' past findings of just one tiger genome sequenced, now they had whole-genome sequence analyses of 32 preserved wild tiger specimens from around the world. Six distinct subspecies of tigers were broken down from the statistical analysis of 1.8 million DNA variants across the tigers' genomes. This information also opens new doors into the evolutionary history of tigers. For example, they found genes associated with smaller body sizes  in Sumatran tigers of Indonesia relative to most mainland tigers due to the small prey (deer and wild boar) they hunt for. This information agrees with Dr.Luo's morphological observations and ecological expectations. Dr. Luo concludes, "To preserve such genomic signatures is to preserve evolutionary uniqueness that tigers have accumulated over thousands of years. We need to respect this uniqueness by maximizing our efforts for all tiger subspecies."

The Asia director of science for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Dr. Ullas Koranth, praising Dr.Lou's research but believes in prioritizing more in the  maintaining and recovering of tigers instead. In my opinion, I agree with Dr. Karanth. Although I also believe that collecting genetic information for the uniqueness of their genome is of high importance, the conservation and rebuilding of the tiger population is crucial and should be done initially. We should save them first and then document them. Tigers are imperative as they act as keystone species for most ecosystems, which is why we should be more aware of their endangered population.

Resources:
https://search.proquest.com/nytimes/docview/2125563003/fulltext

Studying the DNA of Tigers

     Stephen O'Brien a researcher at Nova Southeastern University and his team have been looking at the genetic make-up of tigers.  The study has been ongoing for 10 years which will appear in print May 1, 2015.  The journal article will discuss DNA signatures from 145 individual tigers.  Also including tigers from verified geographic origins which represented extinct subspecies.
     In 2004 the studies first results displayed that the Malayan tigers were splitting from its Indochinese counterparts creating a distinct, new fifth-living tiger subspecies.  The teams most recent findings have found that the extinct Javan and Bali tigers were almost indistinguishable from a molecular view in comparison to the Sumatran tigers.  Just as the extinct Caspian tigers are almost identical to the surviving Amur tigers.  O'Brien states that the results are important because it will help manage and protect each surviving subspecies.  It will stabilize the rate of extinction that the tigers are on.  O'Brien also believes the discovery can be a powerful took to help with forensic identification of subspecies in captive populations.  Even taking a role in trafficked bone and skins in illegal trades.
    I am rather shocked at how long this research has been taking.  I would have assumed that this information was already known.  It is amazing to see how these finds using DNA can completely change the game of genetics and animal research.  Hopefully these findings will aid in the protection of the tigers and other endangered species currently.

Original Article