Genetics of California mountain lions: Research to inform future conservation

Date:  December 21, 2018

Source:  University of Wyoming

Fragmentation of wildlife populations is increasing on a global scale, and understanding current genetic structure, genetic diversity and genetic connectivity is key to informing future wildlife management and conservation.

This is true of mountain lion -- also known as pumas or cougars -- populations in California, according to a new study conducted by a University of Wyoming research team.

"Large expanses of continuous habitat provide populations the opportunity to maintain large numbers of gene variants, called alleles. This is analogous to a deck of cards. If you have 40 cards, you are capable of harboring more types of cards than if you had 10," says Kyle Gustafson, an assistant professor of genetics in the Department of Biology and Environmental Health at Missouri Southern State University, but who started this work in Holly Ernest's Wildlife Genomics and Disease Ecology Lab at UW. "When populations get isolated, like many of the puma populations surrounded by urbanization, the only way for them to maintain a large number of alleles is through migration. Otherwise, natural selection and genetic drift will ultimately lead to genetic uniformity (fixation) and mating among related individuals (inbreeding)."

The new study, titled "Genetic Source-Sink Dynamics Among Naturally Structured and Anthropogenically Fragmented Puma Populations," was published Dec. 10 in Conservation Genetics, a journal that promotes the conservation of biodiversity by providing a forum for data and ideas, aiding the further developments of this area of study. Contributions include work from the disciplines of population genetics, molecular ecology, molecular biology, evolutionary biology, systematics and forensics.

Read  more