Functional genomic diversity is correlated with neutral genomic diversity in populations of an endangered rattlesnake

Significance A cornerstone concept in the field of conservation genetics is that the amount of genetic erosion in small populations of endangered species can be assessed using estimates of neutral genetic diversity, but this idea has been questioned. We used genomic data to show that neutral diversity can provide an accurate measure of both components of functional genetic diversity—mutation load and adaptive variation—in populations of an endangered rattlesnake but that this correlation is weaker for projections of future levels of neutral diversity versus historical estimates. Our findings suggest a more nuanced perspective to the neutral-functional diversity controversy by suggesting that although these correlations are present, anthropogenetic impacts may have weakened these associations in present-day and future populations.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

• Publication date

  2023-10-16

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1073/pnas.2303043120PMID 37844221PMCID 10614936
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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