Ekblom Robert
Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, SE-75236, Uppsala, Sweden.
J Anim Ecol. 2016 Jul;85(4):855-6. doi: 10.1111/1365-2656.12514.
In the endangered Scottish chough (Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax) population, a lethal blindness syndrome is found to be caused by a deleterious recessive allele. Photo: Gordon Yates. In Focus: Trask, A.E., Bignal, E.M., McCracken, D.I., Monaghan, P., Piertney, S.B. & Reid, J.M. (2016) Evidence of the phenotypic expression of a lethal recessive allele under inbreeding in a wild population of conservation concern. Journal of Animal Ecology, 85, 879-891. In this issue of Journal of Animal Ecology, Trask et al. () report on a strange, lethal, blindness that regularly affects chicks of an endangered bird population. The authors show that the inheritance mode of this blindness disease precisely matches the expectations of a recessive deleterious mutation. Intriguingly, there is also an indication that the disease-causing variant might be maintained in the population by balancing selection, due to a selective advantage for heterozygotes. Could this finding have consequences for conservation actions implemented for the population?
在濒危的苏格兰红嘴山鸦（Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax）种群中，发现一种致命的失明综合征是由一个有害的隐性等位基因引起的。图片：戈登·耶茨。聚焦：特拉斯克，A.E.，比格纳尔，E.M.，麦克拉肯，D.I.，莫纳汉，P.，皮尔蒂尼，S.B. & 里德，J.M.（2016年）在一个受保护的野生种群近亲繁殖情况下，致死隐性等位基因表型表达的证据。《动物生态学杂志》，85卷，879 - 891页。在本期《动物生态学杂志》中，特拉斯克等人报告了一种奇怪的、致命的失明现象，这种现象经常影响一个濒危鸟类种群的雏鸟。作者表明，这种失明疾病的遗传模式与隐性有害突变的预期完全相符。有趣的是，也有迹象表明，由于杂合子具有选择优势，致病变体可能通过平衡选择在种群中得以维持。这一发现会对为该种群实施的保护行动产生影响吗？
