Simulating genetic mixing in strongly structured populations of the threatened southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus)

Genetic mixing aims to increase the genetic diversity of small or isolated populations, by mitigating genetic drift and inbreeding depression, either by maximally increasing genetic diversity, or minimising the prevalence of recessive, deleterious alleles. However, few studies investigate this beyond a single generation of mixing. Here, we model the mixing using captive, low diversity recipient population of the threatened Southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus) over fifty generations, and compare wild populations across south-eastern Australia as candidate source populations. We first assess genetic differentiation between twelve populations, including the first genomic assessment of three mainland Australian and three Tasmanian populations. We assess genetic diversity in the twelve populations using a novel autosomal heterozygosity pipeline, using these results to identify a candidate recipient population for genetic mixing simulations. We found that populations fell into four maj..., , , # Simulating genetic mixing in strongly structured populations of the threatened southern brown bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4v3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.34tmpg4v3)

## Description of the data and file structure

Genotypic data and metadata for 185 *Isoodon obesulus*, sampled from wild and captive sites across south-eastern between 2008-2023.

Samples provided as demultiplexed raw reads in .fq.gz format, with barcode, metadata, and pop-map files.

Metadata contains coordinate data approximated to two (2) decimal places to protect a sensitive species, as per The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (Category 3 sensitive species). Where exact coordinate data was unavailable, approximate data was inferred from the recorded locality. Two samples had broad location metadata, but no recorded coordinates or locality; coordinates for these samples are recorded as \"n/a\". Metadata also contains incomplete sex data; where sex was unknown, \"n/a\" has b...,