Data from: The impacts of inbreeding, drift, and selection on genetic diversity in captive breeding populations

The goal of captive breeding programs is often to maintain genetic diversity until reintroductions can occur. However, due in part to changes that occur in captive populations, approximately one-third of reintroductions fail. We evaluated genetic changes in captive populations using microsatellites and mtDNA. We analyzed six populations of white-footed mice that were propagated for 20 generations using two replicates of three protocols: random mating (RAN), minimizing mean kinship (MK), and selection for docility (DOC). We found that MK resulted in the slowest loss of microsatellite genetic diversity compared to RAN and DOC. However, the loss of mtDNA haplotypes was not consistent among replicate lines. We compared our empirical data to simulated data and found no evidence of selection in the MK lines although some evidence of selection in the RAN lines was present. Our results suggest that although the effects of drift may not be fully mitigated, MK reduces the loss of alleles due to inbreeding more effectively than random mating or docility selection. Therefore, MK should be preferred for captive breeding. Furthermore, our simulations show that incorporating microsatellite data into the MK framework reduced the magnitude of drift, which may have applications in long-term or extremely genetically depauperate captive populations.

迁地保护繁育计划的核心目标通常是维持种群遗传多样性，直至具备野外放归条件。然而，部分由于迁地种群发生的遗传变化，约三分之一的野外放归项目最终失败。我们采用微卫星（microsatellites）与线粒体DNA（mtDNA）标记，对迁地种群的遗传变化展开评估。本次研究对象为历经20代繁育的6个白足鼠种群，我们设置了3种繁育方案各2个重复组：随机交配组（RAN）、平均亲缘关系最小化组（MK）以及温顺性选择组（DOC）。研究结果显示，相较于RAN组与DOC组，MK组的微卫星遗传多样性丢失速率最慢。不过，各重复组间的mtDNA单倍型丢失情况并不一致。我们将实测数据与模拟数据进行比对后发现，MK组未出现显著的选择信号，而RAN组则存在一定的选择迹象。本研究结果表明，尽管遗传漂变（genetic drift）的影响或许无法完全消除，但MK相较于随机交配或温顺性选择，能更有效地缓解近交导致的等位基因丢失。因此，迁地繁育应优先选用MK方案。此外，我们的模拟实验显示，在MK框架中纳入微卫星数据可降低遗传漂变的强度，该方法或许可应用于长期繁育或遗传多样性极度匮乏的迁地种群。