Endangered populations require critical intervention to arrest as well as revert the effects of genetic impoverishment. While many studies do routinely access evolutionary dynamics of isolated populations and in many cases endangered populations, fewer studies bridge the gap between research and practical conservation management.
In the past decade, sequencing of whole genomes and genome-wide markers have become a standard of molecular ecology as well as evolutionary studies, however much is yet to be done to utilize genome-wide data for field-based conservation of endangered populations.
In our present investigation, we aimed to fill this void by using genome-wide markers to address conservation management of the critically endangered Siamese crocodiles. We obtained thousands of loci from reduced representation libraries and were able to identify host of genetic factors that afflict the species. Our results point towards contemporary as well as ancient introgression within Siamese crocodiles. We recovered genetic signatures of past population declines closely correlating with anthropogenic practice of poaching and harvest. In addition, we observed high extinction probability of local extinction in the wild in next few generations if drastic steps are not taken to replenish the genetic stock of the species. Our investigation into captive bred populations obtained evidence of inbreeding-related birth defects and identified genomic regions responsible for development associated with these regions. Less...