Project description:The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) is a star example of the efforts of conservation programs in bringing endangered species back from the brink of extinction. As one of the world’s most endangered mammals, the vast majority of black-footed ferrets living in the wild today are the offspring of a founding captive population. The success of this ongoing breeding program, however, is threatened by inbreeding depression and the observed decline in pregnancy rates since its founding. As the wild and modern captive populations share a genetic history, the greatest difference between the two groups is the captive environment of the breeding program. In this study, we used RNA sequencing and proteomics for the first time in black-footed ferrets to explore whether the diet of wild ferrets versus captive diet variants could explain the differences in fertility and sperm characteristics observed between each population. We find that changes in both the transcriptional and proteomic profile of black-footed ferret ejaculate are strongly associated with differences in fertility, especially in pathways associated with innate immunity and metabolism; that transcriptional changes are further exacerbated by diet. Overall, our results support the hypothesis of ongoing environmental-dependent inbreeding depression in the black-footed ferret, with a need to re-evaluate dietary and environmental parameters of the conservation program; and also illustrates the value of multi-level genomics for conservation management programs.
Project description:Lifespan varies both within and across species, but the general principles of its control are not understood. To identify transcriptomic signatures of mammalian longevity, we sequenced multiple organs of young adult mammals corresponding to 8 different species, including Canadian beaver, long-tailed macaque, greater tube-nosed bat, baboon, white-footed mouse, sugar glider, Siberian chipmunk and American black bear. We aggregated this dataset with publicly available pan-mammalian data and performed multi-tissue gene expression analyses across 41 mammalian species. This allowed us to identifiy signatures of species longevity and assess their relationship with biomarkers of aging and lifespan-extending interventions. This dataset complements RNAseq profiles of tissues from 23 mammalian species stored at GSE43013.
Project description:This SuperSeries is composed of the following subset Series: GSE19111: Conservation genomics of Atlantic salmon (Year One) GSE19119: Conservation genomics of Atlantic salmon (Year Two) Refer to individual Series