Purging of Strongly Deleterious Mutations Explains Long-Term Persistence and Absence of Inbreeding Depression in Island Foxes.

ABSTRACT: The recovery and persistence of rare and endangered species are often threatened by genetic factors, such as the accumulation of deleterious mutations, loss of adaptive potential, and inbreeding depression [1]. Island foxes (Urocyon littoralis), the dwarfed descendants of mainland gray foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), have inhabited California's Channel Islands for >9,000 years [2-4]. Previous genomic analyses revealed that island foxes have exceptionally low levels of diversity and elevated levels of putatively deleterious variation [5]. Nonetheless, all six populations have persisted for thousands of generations, and several populations rebounded rapidly after recent severe bottlenecks [6, 7]. Here, we combine morphological and genomic data with population-genetic simulations to determi

SUBMITTER: Robinson JA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6462144 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature