Population genomics of the critically endangered kākāpō

Summary The kākāpō is a flightless parrot endemic to New Zealand. Once common in the archipelago, only 201 individuals remain today, most of them descending from an isolated island population. We report the first genome-wide analyses of the species, including a high-quality genome assembly for kākāpō, one of the first chromosome-level reference genomes sequenced by the Vertebrate Genomes Project (VGP). We also sequenced and analyzed 35 modern genomes from the sole surviving island population and 14 genomes from the extinct mainland population. While theory suggests that such a small population is likely to have accumulated deleterious mutations through genetic drift, our analyses on the impact of the long-term small population size in kākāpō indicate that present-day island kākāpō have a reduced number of harmful mutations compared to mainland individuals. We hypothesize that this reduced mutational load is due to the island population having been subjected to a combination of genetic drift and purging of deleterious mutations, through increased inbreeding and purifying selection, since its isolation from the mainland ∼10,000 years ago. Our results provide evidence that small populations can survive even when isolated for hundreds of generations. This work provides key insights into kākāpō breeding and recovery and more generally into the application of genetic tools in conservation efforts for endangered species

Institutional isomorphism and change: the national programme for IT - 10 years on

Available online on the publisher's website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2012.18International audienceInstitutional isomorphism has been a major intellectual contribution within institutional theory for three decades. The effects and processes of institutionalization have traditionally focused on stability and persistence of institutions, and more recently on institutional change. This study contributes to the IS field using the lens of coercive, mimetic and normative isomorphism and change within a highly institutionalized organizational field of health care. The setting is the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, where in 2002 a major government policy was launched to introduce Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to over 50 million citizens. Using episodic interviewing techniques and content analysis of government health IT policy documents, this study provides a longitudinal analysis of the introduction of government policy to modernize health care using information technology. Institutional isomorphic conditions become conflicted with attempts to impose field and organizational change. As clinicians attempt to retain their professional dominance in a climate of almost continuous restructuring of health services, political initiatives to implement EHRs are met with resistance from key stakeholders, resulting in policy changes and further delayed implementation times