Diversity and structure of Bettongia tropica: using population genetics to guide reintroduction and help prevent the extinction of an endangered Australian marsupial

Abstract

Conservation translocations can restore populations and prevent extinction of threatened species. Sourcing adequate genetic diversity is an essential consideration when planning reintroductions, because it influences individual fitness and long-term persistence of populations, yet available populations of threatened species may lack diversity. We estimated population genetic parameters for one of Australia’s most threatened mammals, the northern bettong, Bettongia tropica, to select source populations for reintroduction. Individuals from sites across the species’ extant range in the Wet Tropics of north Queensland were genotyped, using 6,133 informative SNPs. We found that samples clustered into four populations: an isolated northern population at Mt Spurgeon and three connected southern populations in the Lamb Range. Most of the species’ genetic diversity was dispersed across the Lamb Range populations in approximately equal proportions. Individuals showed an isolation-by-distance effect, even over short distances within continuous habitat. Admixture of populations was high at distances < 7 km but low at distances > 11 km, and there was asymmetrical gene flow between the two closest neighboring populations. All populations had small effective sizes and experienced drift, but connectivity appears to have mitigated drift and stabilized population sizes within the Lamb Range. The Mt Spurgeon population had a very small effective population size and low genetic diversity. We use our findings to weigh up the risks and benefits of mixing sources for reintroduction, and we recommend a mixed source approach. We do not currently recommend sourcing individuals from Mt Spurgeon and conservation efforts to preserve this population are urgently required.

A community‐driven captive‐breeding and reintroduction program maintains genetic diversity in a threatened freshwater fish

“…Additionally, a higher proportion of the recaptured population were hybrids (~28%, compared to 6.45% and 16.67% of released Avoca and Campaspe cohorts, respectively), potentially suggesting that genetic mixing may improve individual survivability. The higher levels of hybridization in F1 cohorts likely contributed to the maintenance of heterozygosity, as reintroduced populations from mixed sources may have moderately higher heterozygosity than their respective source populations (Huff et al, 2010; McKnight et al, 2023). While genetic mixing may result in the loss of unique genetic variation from the source populations due to homogenization, the low genetic diversity of—and strong genetic drift and limited adaptive differentiation between—upland populations (Brauer et al, 2016) suggests that mixing is a more effective conservation strategy than maintaining genetic “uniqueness” (Ralls et al, 2018; Weeks et al, 2016).…”