Lesobre Loïc, Ostolani Alessia, Abi Hussein Hiba, Giunchi Dimitri, Aourir Mohamed, Teyar Yassine, Baratti Mariella
Reneco International Wildlife Consultants LLC, Al Reem Island, Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 61741, United Arab Emirates.
Department of Biology, University of Pisa, Via Volta 6, 56126 Pisa, Italy.
Biology (Basel). 2024 Nov 27;13(12):982. doi: 10.3390/biology13120982.
Although ex situ conservation programs are increasingly valuable support tools for in situ conservation measures, success depends on these captive individuals to be genetically representative of the recipient population. The Eurasian stone-curlew () inhabit steppes that represent some of the most degraded and exploited habitats worldwide. A captive breeding program was implemented in Morocco as a pre-emptive effort for the conservation of the North African subspecies . However, the genetic origins of the founders of the captive flock were unknown. We applied a multi-locus approach to characterize the genetic ancestry of the current captive breeding flock by comparing it to wild populations from both Western and Eastern Morocco. Mitochondrial DNA and microsatellite markers were employed to assess levels of genetic diversity and relatedness within each sample, as well as potential genetic differentiation between wild and captive samples through PCA and admixture analyses. We recovered similar genetic diversity estimates, low levels of relatedness, and little differentiation between captive and wild samples. These results confirmed the Moroccan origin of the founders. We provide recommendations for the optimization of the Eurasian Stone Curlew conservation breeding program but also for future conservation breeding programs to ensure the effective conservation of genetic diversity and wild populations.
尽管迁地保护计划作为就地保护措施越来越有价值的支持工具，但成功与否取决于这些圈养个体在基因上能否代表受援种群。欧亚石鸻（学名：Burhinus oedicnemus）栖息于草原，而这些草原是世界上一些退化最严重、开发程度最高的栖息地。摩洛哥实施了一项圈养繁殖计划，作为保护北非亚种的一项先发制努力。然而，圈养种群奠基者的基因来源不明。我们采用多基因座方法，通过将当前圈养繁殖种群与摩洛哥西部和东部的野生种群进行比较，来确定其基因谱系。利用线粒体DNA和微卫星标记评估每个样本内的遗传多样性和相关性水平，以及通过主成分分析（PCA）和混合分析评估野生样本和圈养样本之间潜在的遗传分化。我们得出了相似的遗传多样性估计值、较低的相关性水平，以及圈养样本和野生样本之间几乎没有分化的结果。这些结果证实了奠基者的摩洛哥起源。我们不仅为优化欧亚石鸻保护繁殖计划提供了建议，也为未来的保护繁殖计划提供了建议，以确保有效保护遗传多样性和野生种群。
