Using microsatellite diversity in wild Anegada igu

Authors: Adele A Mitchell Jennie Lau Leona G Chemnick Elizabeth A Thompson Allison C Alberts Oliver A Ryder Glenn P Gerber

Publish Date: 2011/02/04

Volume: 12, Issue: 3, Pages: 771-781

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Abstract

Awareness of the genealogical relationships between founder animals in captive breeding programs is essential for the selection of mating pairs that maintain genetic diversity If captive founder relationships are unknown they can be inferred using genetic data from wild populations Here we report the results of such an analysis for six Cyclura pinguis Sauria Iguanidae acquired as adults in 1999 by the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research to begin a captive breeding program for this critically endangered species The six founder animals were reportedly hatched in captivity from eggs collected on Anegada in 1985 No records exist however as to where on Anegada the eggs were collected or from how many nests they originated To assist determination of genealogical relationships we genotyped the six captive founders their first six offspring and 33 wild adult iguanas from Anegada at 23 informative microsatellite loci With these data we estimated allele frequencies among the wild samples and then estimated the relatedness of the captive population Using likelihood inference we determined that three closely related pairs exist among the six captive founders and that each pair is not closely related to the other two In addition we were able to assign parentage for all six of the founders’ offspring tested one of which had been previously misdiagnosed Using the assigned parentage and inferred relatedness of the six founders we calculated mean kinship for each of the six founders and their five living offspring Finally based on the allelic diversity of the wild iguanas sampled we conclude that the C pinguis population on Anegada is not excessively inbred however further investigation is warrantedWe thank the British Virgin Islands National Parks Trust for arranging CITES export permits and providing logistical assistance on Anegada the IUCN Iguana Specialist Group for arranging CITES import permits the Institute of Museum and Library Services for funding the genetic work and the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the San Diego Zoo Conservation Fund for financially supporting the fieldwork We are grateful to Rondel Smith and Jeff Lemm for assistance in the field to Heidi Davis for help in the lab to Maggie Reinbold Zac Harlow and Stephan Funk for access to unpublished data and to Ken Jones GIS for technical assistance Samples used in this study were collected using methods approved by the Zoological Society of San Diego Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee IACUC NIH assurance A367501

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