Integrating microsatellite and pedigree analyses to facilitate the captive management of the endangered Mississippi sandhill crane (Grus canadensis pulla)

Abstract

The minimization of kinship in captive populations is usually achieved through the use of pedigree information. However, pedigree knowledge alone is not sufficient if pedigree information is missing, questionable, or when the founders of the captive population are related to one another. If this is the case, higher levels of inbreeding and lower levels of genetic diversity may be present in a captive population than those calculated by pedigree analyses alone. In this study, the genetic status of the critically endangered Mississippi sandhill crane (MSC) (Grus canadensis pulla) was analyzed using studbook data from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managed captive breeding program as well as microsatellite DNA data. These analyses provided information on shared founder genotypes, allowing for refined analysis of genetic variation in the population, and the development of a new DNA-based studbook pedigree that will assist in the genetic management of the MSC population.

Screening and application of microsatellite markers for genetic diversity analysis of captive eastern sarus craneGrus antigone sharpiiBlanford, 1895 in Thailand

“…In this study, 14 primer pairs developed for whooping crane can be amplified successfully in eastern sarus crane. Similar results can be seen in other crane species, such as the Florida sandhill crane ( G. canadensis pratensis ) (Jones et al, ) and Mississippi sandhill crane ( G. c. pulla ) (Henkel et al, ). In addition, primers from a relatively distant species such as blue crane can also be applied to our target species as well.…”

“…Our findings revealed that the captive sarus cranes showed H O ranging from 0.18–1.00 with 0.64 on average. Cranes in both KKOZ and BB populations exhibited high genetic diversity in terms of observed heterozygosity when compared with other cranes species such as whooping crane ( H O : 0.04–0.79, = 0.46) (Jones et al, ), Mississippi sandhill crane ( H O : 0.22–0.98, = 0.55) (Henkel et al, ) and red‐crowned crane ( H O : 0.21–0.59, = 0.47 in island population and H O : 0.54–0.96, = 0.70 in mainland populations) (Hasegawa, Ishibashi, & Abe, ), though this value was slightly low when compared with that of blue crane ( H O : 0.50–0.95, = 0.76) (Meares et al, ) and Siberian crane ( H O : 0.53–0.93, = 0.74) (Mudrik, Kashentseva, Gamburg, & Politov, ). This result contradicts to what is known as “ascertainment bias” (Li & Kimmel, ), in which microsatellite primers isolated from a certain species used to assess genetic diversity in a different species usually resulted in much lower heterozygosity.…”

Contrasting results from molecular and pedigree-based population diversity measures in captive zebra highlight challenges facing genetic management of zoo populations

“…In addition, pedigree records may contain errors or data gaps that lead to further deviations in genetic diversity estimates from their true values. To address these issues, several captive breeding programs have recently begun to combine molecular genetic analysis with traditional pedigree analysis [Gautschi et al, ; Ogden et al, ; Ivy et al, ; McGreevy et al, ; Henkel et al, Ferrie et al, ]. Such combined analyses allow us to compare genetic diversity estimates predicted by pedigree analysis with that of genetic variation observed in the molecular data, and to develop more appropriate genetic management.…”

Studbook and molecular analyses for the endangered black-lion-tamarin; an integrative approach for assessing genetic diversity and driving management in captivity

“…To compensate for the lack of knowledge about the initial genetic diversity and relationships between the founders, various institutions that manage endangered species have recently tried to combine molecular data with pedigree analyses 6,[24][25][26][27][28] , although studies integrating both types of data are still scarce 29 .…”