Genome wide diversity in Alala (Hawaiian Crow, Corvus hawaiiensis)

This study compares genome wide diversity of Alala historical specimens collected in the 1890s to samples taken between 1973 and 1997, when Alala population densities were near the lowest documented level and a limited number of individuals still remained in the wild. The genome-wide SNP data set was prepared using hybridization-based sequence capture and the genome targets were sequenced on an Illumina MiSeq. We examined genome-wide diversity in both pre-decline and post-decline sample groups, proportion of polymorphic loci, observed heterozygosity, kinship, and joint site frequency spectrums.