TY - JOUR
T1 - Genomic Consequences of Isolation and Inbreeding in an Island Dingo Population
AU - Leon-Apodaca, Ana V.
AU - Kumar, Manoharan
AU - Del Castillo, Andres
AU - Conroy, Gabriel C.
AU - Lamont, Robert W.
AU - Ogbourne, Steven
AU - Cairns, Kylie M.
AU - Borburgh, Liz
AU - Behrendorff, Linda
AU - Subramanian, Sankar
AU - Szpiech, Zachary A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s).
PY - 2024/7/1
Y1 - 2024/7/1
N2 - Dingoes come from an ancient canid lineage that originated in East Asia around 8,000 to 11,000 years BP. As Australia's largest terrestrial predator, dingoes play an important ecological role. A small, protected population exists on a world heritage listed offshore island, K'gari (formerly Fraser Island). Concern regarding the persistence of dingoes on K'gari has risen due to their low genetic diversity and elevated inbreeding levels. However, whole-genome sequence data is lacking from this population. Here, we include five new whole-genome sequences of K'gari dingoes. We analyze a total of 18 whole-genome sequences of dingoes sampled from mainland Australia and K'gari to assess the genomic consequences of their demographic histories. Long (>1 Mb) runs of homozygosity (ROHs) - indicators of inbreeding - are elevated in all sampled dingoes. However, K'gari dingoes showed significantly higher levels of very long ROH (>5 Mb), providing genomic evidence for small population size, isolation, inbreeding, and a strong founder effect. Our results suggest that, despite current levels of inbreeding, the K'gari population is purging strongly deleterious mutations, which, in the absence of further reductions in population size, may facilitate the persistence of small populations despite low genetic diversity and isolation. However, there may be little to no purging of mildly deleterious alleles, which may have important long-term consequences, and should be considered by conservation and management programs.
AB - Dingoes come from an ancient canid lineage that originated in East Asia around 8,000 to 11,000 years BP. As Australia's largest terrestrial predator, dingoes play an important ecological role. A small, protected population exists on a world heritage listed offshore island, K'gari (formerly Fraser Island). Concern regarding the persistence of dingoes on K'gari has risen due to their low genetic diversity and elevated inbreeding levels. However, whole-genome sequence data is lacking from this population. Here, we include five new whole-genome sequences of K'gari dingoes. We analyze a total of 18 whole-genome sequences of dingoes sampled from mainland Australia and K'gari to assess the genomic consequences of their demographic histories. Long (>1 Mb) runs of homozygosity (ROHs) - indicators of inbreeding - are elevated in all sampled dingoes. However, K'gari dingoes showed significantly higher levels of very long ROH (>5 Mb), providing genomic evidence for small population size, isolation, inbreeding, and a strong founder effect. Our results suggest that, despite current levels of inbreeding, the K'gari population is purging strongly deleterious mutations, which, in the absence of further reductions in population size, may facilitate the persistence of small populations despite low genetic diversity and isolation. However, there may be little to no purging of mildly deleterious alleles, which may have important long-term consequences, and should be considered by conservation and management programs.
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U2 - 10.1093/gbe/evae130
DO - 10.1093/gbe/evae130
M3 - Article
C2 - 38913571
AN - SCOPUS:85197982944
SN - 1759-6653
VL - 16
JO - Genome biology and evolution
JF - Genome biology and evolution
IS - 7
M1 - evae130
ER -