Genetic signatures of population bottlenecks, relatedness, and inbreeding highlight recent and novel conservation concerns in the Egyptian vulture

The assessment of temporal variation in genetic features can be particularly informativeon the factors behind demography and viability of wildlife populations and species. Weused molecular methods to evaluate neutral genetic variation, relatedness, bottlenecks,and inbreeding in a declining populatio...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Blanco, Guillermo, Morinha, Francisco
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/240210
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/240210
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Genetic diversity
Bottlenecks
Inbreeding
Feather malformations
Neophronpercnopterus
Descripción
Sumario:The assessment of temporal variation in genetic features can be particularly informativeon the factors behind demography and viability of wildlife populations and species. Weused molecular methods to evaluate neutral genetic variation, relatedness, bottlenecks,and inbreeding in a declining population of Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus)in central Spain. The results show that the genetic diversity remained relatively stableover a period of twelve years despite the decline in census and effective population sizesin the last decades. A relatively high proportion of nestlings from different and distantterritories showed high relatedness in each study year. We also found support for anincreasing impact of severe recent (contemporary) rather than distant (historical) pastdemographic bottlenecks, and the first evidence of inbred mating between full siblingscoinciding with lethal malformations in offspring. The inbred nestling with feathermalformations was positive to beak and feather disease virus recorded for the first timein this species. These results alert on recent and novel threats potentially affecting healthand reducing the adaptive potential of individuals in this threatened species.