Wildlife
Using DNA sequencing for wildlife preservation is growing in use as people come to understand which species are endangered and species biology in general. This application helps to also regulate laws regarding the hunting of animals and to prevent such illegal deeds in order to stabilize the population counts of certain endangered species.
Mitochondrial DNA Markers for Wildlife Conservation
The mitochondrial genome consists of a circular chromosome which typically has 36-37 genes. Amongst these genes, two are allotted for rRNAs, 22 for tRNAs, and 12 or 13 for proteins of the inner mitochondrial membrane. Exons are tightly packed, however mtDNA does not contain histones and has a high repair ability which allows for high mutation fixation rate. It the evolution rate contained at specific parts of the mtDNA which allows scientists to make distinctions between phylogenetic relationships. MtDNA sequencing helps with population structuring, resolving taxonomies, establishing interspecific hybridization and with the regulation of hunting.
While mitochondrial DNA helps in distinguishing between levels of the phyla, ribosomal DNA makes the distinction between families or genera. rRNA helps in recognizing divergence patterns in organisms and study wildlife forensic biology. An example of rRNA in use is the differentiation of monophyletic Elopomorpha from Clupeomorpha using the 12S rRNA sequences. Utilizing primers and amplification, the 12S rRNA gene has also been used in the genetic variation process of endangered species: spur thighed tortoise (Testudo graeca). Examining the rRNA genes for Chinese antelopes, researchers have found the divergence value for 16S and 12S to be 9.9% and 6.3%. These indicates that there are subgroups for antelopes and their growing scarcity in the antelope population is needing more attention from conservationists. Mitochondrial protein coding genes are extremely fast at evolving, thus allowing it to develop genetic variations between highly specific levels such as the families, genera and species. This method has enabled us to understand genetic diversity associated with Tibetan gazelles and even detect if certain specimen samples originated from hunted animals. The control or non-coding regions of these DNAs are made of extended termination associated sequences domain, a central domain and a conserved sequenced block domain. Comparing these sequences with captively held animals present with oryx species helps identify the groups that these animals belong to.
Nuclear DNA Markers
Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) is another approach that can be taken in order to conduct research on wildlife preservation and since method does not require any complexity or prior genetic information, it is widely adopted. RAPD has been previously used to determine genetic polymorphism in Eastern Leopard subspecies and other wildlife species from the ones that were kept in captivity. As a result, there was higher diversity in the subspecies in comparison to the animals at the zoo. Analysis of RAPD has also allowed researchers to figure out that the bottleneck effect and inbreeding in the Pacific white shrimp was due to the loss of genetic variation. One of the more prominent methodology adopted is that of Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers which are helping significantly with solutions regarding the conservation of wildlife species. Both RAPD and AFLP are multi locus systems where primers bind to several genes at a time thus causing the amplification of several areas at once. However, AFLP is more reliable because the quality of PCR is higher here. AFLP has been used in the past in order to measure the genetic diversity in sand tiger shark (Carcharodon taurus) and the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) populations and as a result, they showed 59% and 78% variation respectively.
Citations 7.1 - 7.5
Exploring the Depths of Life
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Sequencing
