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Sex, Death and Secret Identities

Sex, Death and Secret Identities. Roles for genetics in conservation Alyssa Mitchell. What is Conservation Genetics?. Integrative Variation Intra & inter population. Effective P opulation S ize. Adaptability is related to variability Hunted to near extinction 20-30 left 175 000 now

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Sex, Death and Secret Identities

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  1. Sex, Death and Secret Identities Roles for genetics in conservation Alyssa Mitchell

  2. What is Conservation Genetics? • Integrative • Variation • Intra & inter population

  3. Effective Population Size • Adaptability is related to variability • Hunted to near extinction • 20-30 left • 175 000 now • Ne = 60 • What does this mean for them?

  4. Breeding • Inbreeding • Mating vs breeding • Blanding’s Turtles are promiscuous, but only about 5% of males are producing offspring!

  5. Hybrids • Increase in variation • Dilute deleterious alleles • Florida panthers got a little help from Texas cougars

  6. CrypticSpecies • How do we know?? • In this case, all it takes is a karyotype!

  7. PopulationDistinction • Who meets? • Who mates? • And who cares???

  8. Microsatellites • Simple-sequence tandem repeats • Highly variable & mutable • Locus-specific • Highly heterozygous • Biparental nuclear variation • CACACACACACACACACACACACACA…

  9. MitochondrialDNA • Many genes are highly conserved • (Usually) Uniparental & matrilineal variation • Species ID & phylogeny • Operation Shrew Poo!

  10. Nova Scotian Shrews • Nova Scotia is home to seven species of shrews, most of which are sympatric. • Sorexcinereusis the common shrew, found in most of the province, including some islands. • Sorexfumeus is knownas the smokey shrew,and smells worse thanany other!

  11. NovaScotianShrews • Sorexdispar is a talis slope specialist • Sorexhoyiis the American pygmy shrew & among the smallest land mammals in the world • Blarinabrevicauda is a short-tailed shrew with a venomous saliva that seems to have anti-cancer properties.

  12. SorexPalustrius • American water shrew • One of the only species todive & foragein water. • Not endangeredoverall

  13. Sorexmaritimensis • Maritime shrew • Endemic • Likely endangered • Recently elevated to species status

  14. The Goal • To determine the distribution of these two species of shrews in Nova Scotia • Data points few & far between

  15. General Characteristics of Shrews • Very low body weight for land mammals • High metabolism • Easily stressed • Can be scared to death • Most active at night

  16. Obstacles to Research • Trapping • Identifying • Holding incaptivity

  17. Dr. Churchfield to the Rescue • Dr. J Sara Churchfield’s Water Shrew Survey • UK Mammal Society • Amassed volunteers & collected scats • Used scat morphology • Volunteers submitted reports

  18. Fecal DNA & Molecular Markers • Two students developed some species-specific primers & an RFLP-based protocol • Mitochondrial DNA : more copies, well-known cytochrome b gene

  19. Fecal DNA & Molecular Markers • What happened?? • DNA quality • New protocol!

  20. BamHI cuts Sorexpalustrisonly XbaI cuts Sorexmaritimensisonly Much easier to amplify 100 & 200 bp fragments indicate that a cut site has been recognized

  21. Forensics • What is it, and where did it come from? • CSI: Whale

  22. CaptiveBreeding • Avoid inbreeding • Encourage specific alleles

  23. Success! • Out of danger • ID a threat • Increase genetic variation

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