Back

Unraveling Genome- and Immunome-wide Genetic Diversity in Jaguars (Panthera onca): Implications for Targeted Conservation

Meissner, R.; Winter, S.; Elbers, J. P.; Plasil, M.; Futas, J.; Mohandesan, E.; Sharif, M. B.; Horin, P.; Prost, S.; Burger, P.

2024-05-07 genomics
10.1101/2024.05.06.592690 bioRxiv
Show abstract

Our study examines the declining Jaguar populations in Central and South America, assessing the impact of habitat loss and fragmentation on genetic diversity and local adaptation. We investigated population structure and immunome variability in 25 jaguars to identify unique genetic diversity for informed, targeted conservation. Our genome-wide analyses revealed three distinct geographic populations corresponding to Central America, South American lowland, and South American highland regions. While the highland population displayed lower overall immunome-wide variability, specific innate (Natural killer cell complex, Toll-like receptor) and adaptive (Major histocompatibility complex-class-II) immune genes crucial for adaptive responses showed promising diversity. Nonetheless, South American highland and Central American jaguars are severely threatened. Therefore, we propose re-evaluating evolutionary significant units to prioritize conservation efforts, preserving crucial genetic and adaptive diversity essential for the species resilience and long-term survival.

Matching journals

The top 3 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.