SUPR
Quantifying the genetic consequences of demographic declines in natural populations
Dnr:

NAISS 2024/22-332

Type:

NAISS Small Compute

Principal Investigator:

Johanna von Seth

Affiliation:

Stockholms universitet

Start Date:

2024-03-12

End Date:

2025-04-01

Primary Classification:

10609: Genetics (medical to be 30107 and agricultural to be 40402)

Allocation

Abstract

Several recent studies indicate that the levels of genome-wide diversity in species are more strongly affected by species’ life histories and ancient demographic events compared to recent changes in population size. From a conservation perspective, this implies that comparisons of genome-wide diversity among endangered species provide little information about the extent to which they are threatened by genetic factors such as inbreeding and loss of genetic diversity. This project aims to circumvent this issue by using a palaeogenomic approach to directly quantify the rates of change in genomic parameters in a population of an endangered species. This will enable me to examine to what degree this endangered species, in Sweden as well as globally, have been subject to recent declines in heterozygosity, increases in inbreeding levels and accumulation of deleterious genetic variation.