Divergence and serial colonization shape genetic variation and define conservation units in Asian elephants

2024/09/27 by Anubhab Khan, Maitreya Sil, Tarsh Thekaekara +5 · 1 voice · 12 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Mathematics · #Biology #Colonization #Divergence (linguistics) #Ecology #Evolutionary biology #Gene #Genetic Mapping and Diversity in Plants and Animals #Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock #Genetic variation #Genetics #Morphological variations and asymmetry #Variation (astronomy)

paper · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2024.08.062

published in Current Biology 34(20), 4692-4703.e5 (Elsevier BV)

openalex publication_date 2024/09/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

= 0.25 ± 0.09 and 0.17 ± 0.02). Analyses of genetic load reveal the purging of potentially high-effect insertion/deletion (indel) deleterious alleles in the southern populations and a decreasing number of deleterious alleles from north to south in India. However, despite dilution and purging for the damaging mutation load in Southern India, the load that remains is homozygous. High homozygosity of deleterious alleles, coupled with low neutral genetic diversity, make southernmost populations high priority for conservation attention. Most surprisingly, our study suggests that patterns of genetic diversity and genetic load can correspond to genomic signatures of serial founding events, even in large, highly mobile, endangered mammals.

Citations

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Discussions

• 60% of the 🌏's wild Asian elephants (🐘) reside in India. Whole genome data from 34 Asian 🐘 reveal patterns of genetic divergence, diversity, inbreeding, + costly mutations that suggest 🐘 serially [bsky, 15 points, 0 comments]

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