In this comprehensive review, a range of factors is considered that may influence the significance of genetic diversity for the survival of a population. Genetic variation is essential for the adaptability of a population in which quantitatively inherited, fitness-related traits are crucial. Therefore, the relationship between genetic diversity and fitness should be studied in order to make predictions on the importance of genetic diversity for a specific population. The level of genetic diversity found in a population highly depends on the mating system, the evolutionary history of a species and the population history (the latter is usually unknown), and on the level of environmental heterogeneity. An accurate estimation of fitness remains complex, despite the availability of a range of direct and indirect fitness parameters. There is no general relationship between genetic diversity and various fitness components. However, if a lower level of heterozygosity represents an increased level of inbreeding, a reduction in fitness can be expected. Molecular markers can be used to study adaptability or fitness, provided that they represent a quantitative trait locus (QTL) or are themselves functional genes involved in these processes. Next to a genetic response of a population to environmental change, phenotypic plasticity in a genotype can affect fitness. The relative importance of plasticity to genetic diversity depends on the species and population under study and on the environmental conditions. The possibilities for application of current knowledge on genetic diversity and population survival for the management of natural populations are discussed.

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Genetic diversity and the survival of populations

Conservation genetics utilizes the tools and concepts of genetics and applies them to problems in conservation biology. For example, molecular genetic techniques, such as protein electrophoresis, and analysis of mitochondrial DNA and highly variable nuclear genes (including DNA fingerprinting), have been important in documenting the extent and pattern of genetic variation in endangered species. We review these techniques and their advantages and disadvantages, and give examples of their application to endan- gered species. For captive animal populations, pedigree analysis has become the basic approach to evaluate breeding priority of particular individuals. Several pedigree analysis techniques are commonly used, but peeling and gene dropping give the most information. We compare these techniques and illustrate their value with applications to the Guam Rail, Przewalski's horse, and other endangered captive animals. The rationale for much conservation genetic interpretation is based in evolutionary genetics. We discuss the avoidance of inbreeding depression and the maintenance of genetic variation-both primary conservation genetic goals-from this perspective. In addition, we suggest aspects of these factors that deserve greater attention in their overall application to conservation planning. Finally, we briefly mention three evolutionary topics-the relationship of heterozygosity and fitness, population bottlenecks, and outbreeding depression-that have implications for conservation genetics. Although simple interpretation in these areas is appealing, we feel that because they are only generally understood and often quite controversial, their application to endangered-species management should be carefully evaluated and moni- tored.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1941887.pdf

Conservation Genetics: Techniques and Fundamentals.

The natural occurrence of lentiviruses closely related to feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) in nondomestic felid species is shown here to be worldwide. Cross-reactive antibodies to FIV were common in several free-ranging populations of large cats, including East African lions and cheetahs of the Serengeti ecosystem and in puma (also called cougar or mountain lion) populations throughout North America. Infectious puma lentivirus (PLV) was isolated from several Florida panthers, a severely endangered relict puma subspecies inhabiting the Big Cypress Swamp and Everglades ecosystems in southern Florida. Phylogenetic analysis of PLV genomic sequences from disparate geographic isolates revealed appreciable divergence from domestic cat FIV sequences as well as between PLV sequences found in different North American locales. The level of sequence divergence between PLV and FIV was greater than the level of divergence between human and certain simian immunodeficiency viruses, suggesting that the transmission of FIV between feline species is infrequent and parallels in time the emergence of HIV from simian ancestors.

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Worldwide prevalence of lentivirus infection in wild feline species: epidemiologic and phylogenetic aspects.

Asiatic lions (Panthera leo persica) now occur in the wild only as a small population (about 250 animals) within a single reserve, the Gir forest in Gujarat state in western India. Persistent attacks by lions on humans hinder support among local peoples for lion conservation. We analyzed 193 attacks by lions on humans and conducted interviews with 73 villagers to identify the spatial, temporal, and social factors associated with lion-human conflict in the region. An average of 14.8 attacks by lions and 2.2 lion-caused deaths occurred annually between 1978 and 1991, and most attacks (82%) occurred on private lands outside the forest reserve. A drought in 1987–1988 precipitated an increase in rates of conflicts (from 7.3 to 40.0 attacks/year) and in the proportion of attacks that occurred outside the reserve (from 75% to 87%). The spatial pattern of lion attacks could not be distinguished from random before the drought, whereas attacks were clustered after the drought in village subdistricts with a higher ratio of revenue land to forest edge and those closer to sites where lions were formerly baited for tourist shows. Subadult lions were involved in conflicts in disproportion to their relative abundance. A majority of villagers interviewed expressed hostile attitudes toward lions owing to the threat of personal injury and economic hardship (mainly livestock damage) posed by lions. The escalation in lion-human conflict following the drought probably resulted from a combination of increased aggressiveness in lions and a tendency for villagers to bring their surviving livestock into their dwellings. Dissatisfaction with the government’s compensation system for lion-depredated livestock was reported widely. The current strategy for coping with problem lions—that is, returning them to areas in the Gir forest already saturated with lions—is inadequate, as indicated by the sharp increase in lion-human conflict since 1988. Prohibiting lion baiting for tourist shows, consolidation of reserve boundaries, and implementation of a more equitable and simpler system for compensating villagers for livestock destroyed by lions could provide short-term alleviation of lion-human conflict in the region. Long-term alleviation may entail reducing the lion population by relocating or culling lions.

Lion‐Human Conflict in the Gir Forest, India

The application of hypervariable minisatellite genomic families to the reconstruction of population genetic structure holds great promise in describing the demographic history and future prospects of free-ranging populations. This potential has not yet been realized due to unforeseen empirical constraints associated with the use of heterologous species probes, to theoretical limitations on the power of the procedure to track genic heterozygosity and kinship, and to the absence of extensive field studies to test genetic predictions. We combine here the technical development of feline-specific VNTR (variable number tandem repeat) families of genetic loci with the long-term demographic and behavioral observations of lion populations of the Serengeti ecosystem in East Africa. Minisatellite variation was used to quantify the extent of genetic variation in several populations that differed in their natural history and levels of inbreeding. Definitive parentage, both maternal and paternal, was assessed for 78 cubs born in 11 lion prides, permitting the assessment of precise genealogical relationships among some 200 lions. The extent of DNA restriction fragment sharing between lions was empirically calibrated with the coefficient of relatedness, r, in two different populations that had distinct demographic histories. The results suggest that reliable estimates of relative genetic diversity, of parentage, and of individual relatedness can be achieved in free-ranging populations, provided the minisatellite family is calibrated in established pedigrees for the species.

Analytical DNA Fingerprinting in Lions: Parentage, Genetic Diversity, and Kinship

The Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) exists in the wild as a single relict population of approximately 250 individuals in the protected Gir Forest Sanctuary in western India. In 1981, a species survival plan (SSP) for the Asiatic lion was established by the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums to manage the 200 + descendants of Asiatic lions in captivity in western zoological facilities. This captive population was derived from seven founders. In order to compare the genetic structure of the Gir Forest population with that of the captive SSP population, a genetic survey of 46 electrophoretic allozyme systems resolved from extracts of lion blood was undertaken by using 29 SSP Asiatic lions and 28 wild-caught or captive-bred lions maintained at the Sakkarbaug Zoo in India but originally derived from the Gir Forest. The Gir lion population was found to be genetically monomorphic at each of 46 allozyme loci. This was in contrast to several African lion (Panthera leo leo) populations, which show moderate levels of allozyme variation at the same loci. The SSP lion population was polymorphic at three allozyme loci (IDHI, TF, and PTI) for alleles that were previously found only in African lion populations. Pedigree analysis of the genetic transmission of these three biochemical loci demonstrated that two of the five primary founder animals of the SSP Asiatic lion population (a breeding pair originally imported from the Trivandrum Zoo in southern India) were descendants of the African subspecies. Three other founder animals were pure Asian. A retrospective SSP pedigree analysis of two morphologic characters (prominent abdominal fold and pairing of infraorbital foramen) that are partially diagnostic for persica vs leo was consistent with this conclusion as well. The implications for the management of small captive populations of threatened species and of the Asiatic lion SSP population are discussed.

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K. K. Bhattacharjee

Papers

Evidence for African origins of founders of the asiatic lion species survival plan