Journal article
Is MHC diversity a better marker for conservation than neutral genetic diversity? A case study of two contrasting dolphin populations
Ecology and Evolution, Vol.9(12), pp.6986-6998
2019
Abstract
Genetic diversity is essential for populations to adapt to changing environments. Measures of genetic diversity are often based on selectively neutral markers, such as microsatellites. Genetic diversity to guide conservation management, however, is better reflected by adaptive markers, including genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Our aim was to assess MHC and neutral genetic diversity in two contrasting bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) populations in Western Australia- one apparently viable population with high reproductive output (Shark Bay) and one with lower reproductive output that was forecast to decline (Bunbury). We assessed genetic variation in the two populations by sequencing the MHC class II DQB, which encompasses the functionally important peptide binding regions (PBR). Neutral ge-netic diversity was assessed by genotyping twenty-three microsatellite loci. We confirmed that MHC is an adaptive marker in both populations. Overall, the Shark Bay population exhibited greater MHC diversity than the Bunbury popula-tion-for example, it displayed greater MHC nucleotide diversity. In contrast, the dif-ference in microsatellite diversity between the two populations was comparatively low. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that viable populations typically display greater genetic diversity than less viable populations. The results also suggest that MHC variation is more closely associated with population viability than neutral genetic variation. Although the inferences from our findings are limited, because we only compared two populations, our results add to a growing number of studies that highlight the usefulness of MHC as a potentially suitable genetic marker for animal conservation. The Shark Bay population, which carries greater adaptive genetic diver-sity than the Bunbury population, is thus likely more robust to natural or human-in-duced changes to the coastal ecosystem it inhabits.
Details
- Title
- Is MHC diversity a better marker for conservation than neutral genetic diversity? A case study of two contrasting dolphin populations
- Authors
- Oliver Manlik (Corresponding Author)Michael Krutzen (Author)Anna M Kopps (Author)Janet Mann (Author)Lars Bejder (Author)Simon J Allen (Author)Celine H Frere (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - School of Science & EngineeringRichard C Connor (Author)William B Sherwin (Author)
- Publication details
- Ecology and Evolution, Vol.9(12), pp.6986-6998
- Publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
- Date published
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.1002/ece3.5265
- ISSN
- 2045-7758
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Ecology and Evolution published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99451254702621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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