Black-footed Ferret Genome Analysis

The black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes) experienced an extreme bottleneck during the 20th century, reducing the species to a single population by the 1980''s. This lingering population continued to decline, leading to the 1985 initiation of a captive breeding program. The species was saved from extinction, however conservation efforts are ongoing with new challenges - potentially loss of fitness through inbreeding. All living individuals are descended from 7 ferrets that successfully bred in captivity. Tissue from these 7 ferrets as well as congeners that failed to breed have been preserved, and offer the chance to analyze the population genomics of the last black-footed ferret population and the individuals that formed the first generation of the captive program. These preserved tissues are also a resource for integrating historic genetics into the living population through genetic rescue via artificial insemination and cloning. To assess the value of archived tissues for genetic rescue we propose sequencing genomes of historic and living ferrets to measure changes in SNP variation across generations of captive breeding. Reductions in genetic diversity through drift, inbreeding and selection will be evaluated. We have generated sequences of short read DNA libraries for full genomes to a depth of ~20X from two cryopreserved cell lines derived from individuals captured in 1985, a living ferret born by artificial insemination from cryoprserved spermatozoa, and a natural born living ferret. From these samples we can produce preliminary assessments of differences in SNP variation between 20+ generations from the original wild population to the current breeding generation.