Examination of the efficacy of small genetic panels in genomic conservation of companion animal populations

In many ways dogs are an ideal model for the study of genetic erosion and population recovery, problems of major concern in the field of conservation genetics. Genetic diversity in many dog breeds has been declining systematically since the beginning of the 1800’s, when modern breeding practices came into fashion. As such, inbreeding in domestic dog breeds is substantial and widespread and has led to an increase in recessive deleterious mutations of high effect as well as general inbreeding depression. Pedigrees can in theory be used to guide breeding decisions, though are often incomplete and do not reflect the full history of inbreeding. Small microsatellite panels are also used in some cases to choose mating pairs to produce litters with low levels of inbreeding. However, the long-term impact of such practices have not been thoroughly evaluated. Here, we use forward simulation on a model of the dog genome to examine the impact of using limited markers panels to guide pairwise mating ...

在诸多方面，犬类都是研究遗传侵蚀与种群恢复的理想模型——这两类问题均为保护遗传学（conservation genetics）领域备受关注的核心议题。自19世纪初现代繁育实践兴起以来，众多犬品种的遗传多样性便持续系统性下降。正因如此，家养犬品种的近交现象不仅规模庞大且分布广泛，不仅导致高效应隐性有害突变的频率上升，还引发了普遍的近交衰退。理论上，系谱信息可用于指导繁育决策，但这类数据往往并不完整，且无法反映完整的近交历史。部分研究场景中，小型微卫星（microsatellite）标记组也被用于筛选交配配对，以繁育近交程度较低的幼崽。然而，此类繁育方式的长期影响尚未得到全面评估。本研究基于犬基因组模型开展正向模拟，以探究使用有限标记组指导两两交配的影响……