Genetic load proxies do not predict fitness better than inbreeding does in a wild population
Robledo-Ruiz, D. A.; Sunnucks, P.; Quin, B.; Magrath, M. M. J. L.; Harley, D.; Pavlova, A.
Show abstract
A key goal in conservation is managing endangered populations in order to maximise individual and population fitness. Genetic management that reduces inbreeding and increases genetic diversity has been consistently successful, but recent attention has been drawn to managing genetic load instead. We investigated whether genetic load proxies based on evolutionary conservation predict individual fitness better than inbreeding does. We re-sequenced the genomes of 43 wild helmeted honeyeaters with lifetime fitness data, and 28 individuals of other subspecies. None of the 28 genetic load proxies we tested predicted lifetime reproductive success better than three inbreeding metrics did, and different load proxies were inconsistent regarding the occurrence of purging or accumulation of deleterious alleles. Genetic load proxies need further validation as fitness indicators for conservation management.
Matching journals
The top 1 journal accounts for 50% of the predicted probability mass.
Similar papers in this journal
- Evolution of hybrid inviability associated with chromosome fusions 95%
- High MHC gene copy number maintains diversity despite homozygosity in a Critically Endangered single-island endemic bird, but no evidence of MHC-based mate choice 94%
- Ecology not genetics explains correlated trait divergence during speciation 94%
Similar papers in this journal
Similar papers in this journal
- Demographic inference provides insights into the extirpation and ecological dominance of eusocial snapping shrimps 93%
- Polygenic and monogenic adaptation drive evolutionary rescue at different magnitudes of environmental change 92%
- Sex-biased dispersal drives mito-nuclear discordance in simulated populations 92%
Similar papers in this journal
- Examination of the efficacy of small genetic panels in genomic conservation of companion animal populations 93%
- Assessing connectivity despite high diversity in island populations of the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae 92%
- Spatial population genetics in heavily managed species: Separating patterns of historical translocation from contemporary gene flow in white-tailed deer 92%
Similar papers in this journal
"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.