Al Rawahi Qais, Mijangos Jose Luis, Khatkar Mehar S, Al Abri Mohammed A, AlJahdhami Mansoor H, Kaden Jennifer, Senn Helen, Brittain Katherine, Gongora Jaime
Sydney School of Veterinary Science, Faculty of Science, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
Office for Conservation of the Environment, Diwan of Royal Court, PO Box 246, P.C. 100, Muscat, Oman.
R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Mar 16;9(3):210558. doi: 10.1098/rsos.210558. eCollection 2022 Mar.
The Arabian oryx was the first species to be rescued from extinction in the wild by the concerted efforts of captive programmes in zoos and private collections around the world. Reintroduction efforts have used two main sources: the 'World Herd', established at the Phoenix Zoo, and private collections in Saudi Arabia. The breeding programme at the Al-Wusta Wildlife Reserve (WWR) in Oman has played a central role in the rescue of the oryx. Individuals from the 'World Herd' and the United Arab Emirates have been the main source for the WWR programme. However, no breeding strategies accounting for genetic diversity have been implemented. To address this, we investigated the diversity of the WWR population and historical samples using mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). We found individuals at WWR contain 58% of the total mtDNA diversity observed globally. Inference of ancestry and spatial patterns of SNP variation shows the presence of three ancestral sources and three different groups of individuals. Similar levels of diversity and low inbreeding were observed between groups. We identified individuals and groups that could most effectively contribute to maximizing genetic diversity. Our results will be valuable to guide breeding and reintroduction programmes at WWR.
阿拉伯羚羊是首个通过全球各地动物园和私人收藏机构的圈养计划共同努力，从野外灭绝状态中拯救出来的物种。重新引入计划主要有两个来源：一是在凤凰城动物园建立的“世界种群”，二是沙特阿拉伯的私人收藏。阿曼的乌斯塔野生动物保护区（WWR）的繁殖计划在羚羊的拯救工作中发挥了核心作用。来自“世界种群”和阿拉伯联合酋长国的个体一直是WWR计划的主要来源。然而，尚未实施考虑遗传多样性的繁殖策略。为了解决这个问题，我们使用线粒体DNA（mtDNA）和单核苷酸多态性（SNP）研究了WWR种群和历史样本的多样性。我们发现WWR的个体包含全球观察到的总mtDNA多样性的58%。对SNP变异的祖先推断和空间模式表明存在三个祖先来源和三组不同的个体。各组之间观察到相似的多样性水平和低近亲繁殖率。我们确定了最能有效促进遗传多样性最大化的个体和群体。我们的结果将对指导WWR的繁殖和重新引入计划具有重要价值。
