Genetic Characterization of Jaguars (Panthera onca) in Captivity in Zoological Parks of Colombia

The construction of the pedigree of captive jaguars (Panthera onca) in zoological parks of Colombia was done using the analysis of the Regional Studbook for Jaguars and DNA analysis of 9 microsatellites of 20 Jaguars (n=20). The assignments for paternities and maternities were done with for the program CERVUS and the relationship between animals were established with the KINSHIP program. The analysis of the Studbook was done with SPARKS and PM2000 software generating the following values: genetic diversity for the population (GD=0.7832), potential genetic diversity (GD=0.9113), genic value (GV=0.7846), mean coefficient of inbreeding (F=0.0179), and the Mean KINSHIP (MK) for each individual. The averages of the observed and expected heterozygosity were 0.687 and 0.684 respectively. Nevertheless, a wild jaguar sample of 156 individuals obtained in Colombia substantially showed a higher degree of gene diversity (H = 0.87) than the Colombian captive jaguar population. Thus, the captive jaguar population retained 78 % of the gene diversity of the Colombian wild jaguar population. With this study the pedigree of the captive population of jaguars was built in order to develop an ex situ conservation plan for the species in the Colombian zoological parks

Data from: Cryptic diversity in black rats Rattus rattus of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador

Human activity has facilitated the introduction of a number of alien mammal species to the Galápagos Archipelago. Understanding the phylogeographic history and population genetics of invasive species on the Archipelago is an important step in predicting future spread and designing effective management strategies. In this study, we describe the invasion pathway of Rattus rattus across the Galápagos using microsatellite data, coupled with historical knowledge. Microsatellite genotypes were generated for 581 R. rattus sampled from 15 islands in the archipelago. The genetic data suggest that there are at least three genetic lineages of R. rattus present on the Galápagos Islands. The spatial distributions of these lineages correspond to the main centers of human settlement in the archipelago. There was limited admixture among these three lineages, and these finding coupled with low rates of gene flow among island populations suggests that interisland movement of R. rattus is rare. The low migration among islands recorded for the species will have a positive impact on future eradication efforts

R. rattus alleles_genepop format

Microsatellite data for study species in Genpop forma