Florida panthers are recovering from the brink of extinction, thanks to a genetic boost from a group of panthers from Texas.
These Florida panthers (Puma concolor coryi) are a subspecies of mountain lion (also known as the puma or cougar) that now occupy less than 5% of their original territory due to hunting and habitat loss.
In the 1990s, fewer than 30 Florida panthers remained, and inbreeding threatened their survival. So to bolster the population’s genetic diversity, scientists brought eight female panthers from Texas into Florida in 1995. Thirty years later, inbreeding has decreased, and the Florida panther population has risen to about 200. Importantly, despite the introduction of new genes, the genetic ancestry that makes Florida panthers their own subspecies hasn’t been wiped out, according to a study published July 28 in the journal PNAS.
Following the introduction, the Florida panthers successfully interbred with five of the eight introduced Texas cats, and over time, their descendants showed fewer signs of inbreeding, such as kinked tails and reproductive issues.
But there was a risk that interbreeding the two populations would replace genetic variants unique to Florida panthers. Some of those variants might be adaptations that helped Florida panthers survive in their environment.
“One of the big concerns with bringing in individuals from Texas was that Florida’s local genetic variation might get completely replaced,” study co-author Diana Aguilar-Gómez, a conservation genomicist at UCLA, said in a statement. “That would be a problem if we are trying to preserve the subspecies that’s unique to Florida.”
Related: Giant Florida panther captured by wildlife officials is heaviest on record
To study the impacts of the Texas pumas’ genes on the present-day Florida panther population, the researchers mapped the genomes of present-day Florida panthers that had both Texas and Florida ancestry. They also mapped the genomes of the five original Texas cats and four original Florida panthers for comparison.
The genes from the Texas pumas didn’t swamp out the unique Florida ancestry, the scientists found. Instead, they reduced the effects of harmful genetic mutations brought about by inbreeding. “Our results show that Florida’s genetics are still very much present,” Aguilar-Gómez said.
Every organism inherits two copies of each gene, but only one gets expressed. If…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Latest from Live Science…