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Predicting the fate of metapopulations is aided by DNA fingerprinting of individuals

Predicting the fate of metapopulations is aided by DNA fingerprinting of individuals Population viability analysis (PVA) and genetic assignment tests are two important items in the toolbox of contemporary conservation biologists, but appear to have little in common as they are applied to scientific problems of different scale and scope. PVAs use life history and environmental data to predict whether populations are able to survive a certain period of time, for example comparing different management strategies. Assignment tests, on the other hand, are statistical procedures applied to individual multi‐locus DNA fingerprints (most often derived from microsatellites), and measure the likelihood with which a genetic profile originates from a specific gene pool. Applied to wild populations, assignment tests can, for example, identify individual migrants, which bear genetic signatures that match better to a distant population rather than to the population where they were sampled. In a remarkable paper that uses three datasets from temperate urodele amphibians (North American salamanders of the genus Ambystoma ), Greenwald (2010) explores assignment tests to quantify the degree of connectivity between demes comprising a metapopulation, an important parameter to predict whether a species is locally able to survive. The general idea is that empirically collected genetic data should provide a more flexible and realistic measure of http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Animal Conservation Wiley

Predicting the fate of metapopulations is aided by DNA fingerprinting of individuals

Animal Conservation , Volume 13 (2) – Apr 1, 2010

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References (5)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 The Zoological Society of London
ISSN
1367-9430
eISSN
1469-1795
DOI
10.1111/j.1469-1795.2010.00361.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Population viability analysis (PVA) and genetic assignment tests are two important items in the toolbox of contemporary conservation biologists, but appear to have little in common as they are applied to scientific problems of different scale and scope. PVAs use life history and environmental data to predict whether populations are able to survive a certain period of time, for example comparing different management strategies. Assignment tests, on the other hand, are statistical procedures applied to individual multi‐locus DNA fingerprints (most often derived from microsatellites), and measure the likelihood with which a genetic profile originates from a specific gene pool. Applied to wild populations, assignment tests can, for example, identify individual migrants, which bear genetic signatures that match better to a distant population rather than to the population where they were sampled. In a remarkable paper that uses three datasets from temperate urodele amphibians (North American salamanders of the genus Ambystoma ), Greenwald (2010) explores assignment tests to quantify the degree of connectivity between demes comprising a metapopulation, an important parameter to predict whether a species is locally able to survive. The general idea is that empirically collected genetic data should provide a more flexible and realistic measure of

Journal

Animal ConservationWiley

Published: Apr 1, 2010

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