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Is the Red Wolf Real? Canis rufus

Is the Red Wolf Real? Canis rufus. Overview. The red wolf is under petition to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act because it is thought to be a hybrid between the gray wolf ( Canis lupus) and the coyote ( C. latrans).

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Is the Red Wolf Real? Canis rufus

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  1. Is the Red Wolf Real? Canis rufus

  2. Overview • The red wolf is under petition to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act because it is thought to be a hybrid between the gray wolf (Canis lupus) and the coyote (C. latrans). • Geneticists have examined both mtDNA and nuclear DNA of all three species and some have proposed that the red wolf is not genetically distinct from either species .

  3. Biological Species Concept • Defines a species as population or group of individuals with the potential to interbreed. • Reproductive isolation has been a major criterion used to define species.

  4. Red Wolf Pedigree • Red wolf thought to be a hybrid between gray wolf and coyote • The red wolf can hybridize with both the coyote (Canis latrans) and gray wolf (Canis lupus) • Analysis of red wolf mtDNA shows no distinct “red wolf” sequences • Analysis of red wolf nuclear DNA shows no distinct “red wolf” sequences

  5. Coyote (Canis latrans)

  6. Gray Wolf (Canis lupus)

  7. Red Wolf (Canis rufus)

  8. Procedure: Preliminary Discussion • Discuss species concept and definition of hybrids • Discuss using DNA sequence information to distinguish species • Discuss the Endangered Species Act • Describe the goals and objectives of the activity

  9. Learning Objectives • Exposing students to bioinformatics tools. • Exploring the definition of “species”, including the morphological species concept vs. the biological species concept. • Understand the Endangered Species Act and implications of molecular genetics in the decision-making processes associated with listing and/or delisting species.

  10. Procedure • Use “Workbench” to locate comparable nucleic acid sequences from the 3 species of Canids • Align the sequences with CLUSTALW • Create a rooted tree by including a strong outlier species (Felis?) • Hypothesize about the relationship among the species based on alignment data and tree structure • Discuss implications for federal listing of Red Wolf as a separate endangered species • Compare an unknown sequence with the baseline data (A forensic case study)

  11. You be the detective! Stacey Kiser has discovered a long lost dusty pelt in the Lane County Historical Society archives. The pelt is dated 1880 and appears to be from a canine . She determined the cytochrome b sequence information listed below. Align her sequence data with the example sequence information for the three putative Canus species and attempt to identify from which species the pelt was collected.

  12. Forensics Activity • You be the detective! Stacey Kiser has discovered a long lost dusty pelt in the Lane County Historical Society archives. The pelt is dated 1880 and appears to be from a canine . She determined the cytochrome b sequence information listed below. Align her sequence data with the example sequence information for the three putative Canus species and attempt to identify from which species the pelt was collected.

  13. Tree for Canis

  14. Sequence/Protein Graphics

  15. Handouts • Instructions for using Workbench • Activity sheets

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