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New paper on conservation of Boelen's...

dustyrhoads Apr 21, 2010 12:38 PM

This paper just came out in the journal, Conservation Genetics. Apparently, they were back-logged and just put it up on-line. It's titled "Conservation genetics of Boelen’s python (Morelia boeleni) from New Guinea: reduced genetic diversity and divergence of captive and wild animals."

The senior author, Dr. Chris Austin at LSU, told me he was very excited about this paper.

You can read the full PDF by clicking on the link below.

Cheers,

DR
Conservation genetics of Boelen’s python (Morelia boeleni) from New Guinea

Replies (5)

bhmorrill Apr 22, 2010 12:08 AM

WOW! That is amazing that they are that genetically homogeneous at those three loci. A little scary as well. That really surprises me! Very cool work. I hope they run the microsats from the Jordan 2002 paper, would be interesting to see what they find with that. If all the DNA samples are still around, would just be money in reagents and tech time to get it done and could yield quite a bit more info. Thanks a lot for posting this, very interesting!!!
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Ben
www.australianaddiction.com

dustyrhoads Apr 23, 2010 02:40 PM

>>WOW! That is amazing that they are that genetically homogeneous at those three loci. A little scary as well. That really surprises me!

Yeah, you wonder what would account for such low genetic divergence and if that (and maybe inbreeding depression) is a main reason for such poor captive breeding results, as opposed to captive husbandry methods.

"One possible explanation for the genetic uniformity
of a single population of M. boeleni would be a recent
bottleneck associated with paleoclimatological oscillations.
Montane reptiles may be particularly sensitive to rapid
climate change and alterations or fluctuations in environmental
conditions that shift populations up or down an
elevational gradient may lead to genetic bottlenecks as one
or a few individuals are able to colonize new climate
suitable elevations. In particular, multiple rapid oscillations
of climate may cause severe bottlenecks. Our results are
still surprising given that examination of genetic diversity
of populations that are resulted from postglacial recolonization
still show moderate haplotype diversity..."

Given the above possible scenario, I wonder if climate change could have selected for a particular genotype, whether the surviving individuals were closely related, genealogically, or not? It seems strange that a bottleneck could occur with ensuing inbreeding over such a broad geographic range.

Or perhaps there was a bottleneck and then more or less rapid dispersal?

It just begs more questions, doesn't it?!

"Current CITES status should remain in effect, with better regulations of exportation on specimens originating from Indonesia."

I have to say I agree with that, especially the latter part, given this study's results.

DR
Suboc.com

bhmorrill Apr 25, 2010 02:18 AM

In livestock species that have had their reproduction studied in depth for decades it has for sure been shown that inbreeding can cause decreased fertility. Would be kind of nice to know that it isn't all our faults as captive keepers as to why we have such a difficult time getting eggs from them. I sure hope we can make some headway on them sometime soon. Such a cool species!!! I have some ideas for some further work, but will have to see how things shake out to see if I will get a stab at them or not.
-----
Ben
www.australianaddiction.com

Doug T Apr 22, 2010 09:35 PM

Ok, so I didn't have anything to do beyond supplying some shed skins. But this is my first peer reviewed paper that I"m part of. This is awesome for me.

Doug T
Doug Taylor Reptiles

dustyrhoads Apr 25, 2010 04:34 PM

>>Ok, so I didn't have anything to do beyond supplying some shed skins. But this is my first peer reviewed paper that I"m part of. This is awesome for me.
>>
>>Doug T
>>Doug Taylor Reptiles
>>

>>Ok, so I didn't have anything to do beyond supplying some shed skins. But this is my first peer reviewed paper that I"m part of. This is awesome for me.
>>
>>Doug T
>>Doug Taylor Reptiles
>>

Doug,

I think what you did is awesome and a great example to hobbyists. I have this grand vision of seeing all people involved with reptiles united in their endeavors. It's so cool when hobbyists get involved in peer-reviewed research and vice versa. I still kick myself for not doing a study of Baird's Ratsnakes genetics, since I had both locality Texas Baird's as well as some really rare pure F1's from Nuevo Leon, Mexico (see below), which are completely different in appearance from TX animals. Now, I'll have to track down the person I sold them to, if I want to make anything of it.

What you did proves that there's really quite a lot that keepers can do to add to the science that ultimately ends up in text books. Thanks for your contribution!

Dusty

Suboc.com

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