{"title":"What Can Genome Sequence Data Reveal About Population Viability?","authors":"Marty Kardos, Lukas F Keller, W Chris Funk","doi":"10.1111/mec.17608","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Biologists have long sought to understand the impacts of deleterious genetic variation on fitness and population viability. However, our understanding of these effects in the wild is incomplete, in part due to the rarity of sufficient genetic and demographic data needed to measure their impact. The genomics revolution is promising a potential solution by predicting the effects of deleterious genetic variants (genetic load) bioinformatically from genome sequences alone bypassing the need for costly demographic data. After a historical perspective on the theoretical and empirical basis of our understanding of the dynamics and fitness effects of deleterious genetic variation, we evaluate the potential for these new genomic measures of genetic load to predict population viability. We argue that current genomic analyses alone cannot reliably predict the effects of deleterious genetic variation on population growth, because these depend on demographic, ecological and genetic parameters that need more than just genome sequence data to be measured. Thus, while purely genomic analyses of genetic load promise to improve our understanding of the composition of the genetic load, they are currently of little use for evaluating population viability. Demographic data and ecological context remain crucial to our understanding of the consequences of deleterious genetic variation for population fitness. However, when combined with such demographic and ecological data, genomic information can offer important insights into genetic variation and inbreeding that are crucial for conservation decision making.</p>","PeriodicalId":210,"journal":{"name":"Molecular Ecology","volume":" ","pages":"e17608"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5000,"publicationDate":"2024-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Molecular Ecology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.17608","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Biologists have long sought to understand the impacts of deleterious genetic variation on fitness and population viability. However, our understanding of these effects in the wild is incomplete, in part due to the rarity of sufficient genetic and demographic data needed to measure their impact. The genomics revolution is promising a potential solution by predicting the effects of deleterious genetic variants (genetic load) bioinformatically from genome sequences alone bypassing the need for costly demographic data. After a historical perspective on the theoretical and empirical basis of our understanding of the dynamics and fitness effects of deleterious genetic variation, we evaluate the potential for these new genomic measures of genetic load to predict population viability. We argue that current genomic analyses alone cannot reliably predict the effects of deleterious genetic variation on population growth, because these depend on demographic, ecological and genetic parameters that need more than just genome sequence data to be measured. Thus, while purely genomic analyses of genetic load promise to improve our understanding of the composition of the genetic load, they are currently of little use for evaluating population viability. Demographic data and ecological context remain crucial to our understanding of the consequences of deleterious genetic variation for population fitness. However, when combined with such demographic and ecological data, genomic information can offer important insights into genetic variation and inbreeding that are crucial for conservation decision making.
期刊介绍:
Molecular Ecology publishes papers that utilize molecular genetic techniques to address consequential questions in ecology, evolution, behaviour and conservation. Studies may employ neutral markers for inference about ecological and evolutionary processes or examine ecologically important genes and their products directly. We discourage papers that are primarily descriptive and are relevant only to the taxon being studied. Papers reporting on molecular marker development, molecular diagnostics, barcoding, or DNA taxonomy, or technical methods should be re-directed to our sister journal, Molecular Ecology Resources. Likewise, papers with a strongly applied focus should be submitted to Evolutionary Applications. Research areas of interest to Molecular Ecology include:
* population structure and phylogeography
* reproductive strategies
* relatedness and kin selection
* sex allocation
* population genetic theory
* analytical methods development
* conservation genetics
* speciation genetics
* microbial biodiversity
* evolutionary dynamics of QTLs
* ecological interactions
* molecular adaptation and environmental genomics
* impact of genetically modified organisms