
@article {161128,
	title = {Exceedingly low genetic diversity in snow leopards due to persistently small population size.},
	journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A},
	volume = {122},
	year = {2025},
	month = {2025 Oct 14},
	pages = {e2502584122},
	abstract = {<p>Snow leopards () serve as an umbrella species whose conservation benefits their high-elevation Asian habitat. Their numbers are believed to be in decline due to numerous anthropogenic threats; however, their conservation is hindered by numerous knowledge gaps. In particular, the dearth of genetic data, unique among all big cat species, hinders a full understanding of their population structure, historical population size, and current levels of genetic diversity. Here, we use whole-genome sequencing data for 41 snow leopards (37 newly sequenced) to offer insights into these unresolved aspects of snow leopard biology. Among our samples, we find evidence of a primary genetic divide between the northern and southern part of the range around the Dzungarian Basin-as previously identified using landscape models and fecal microsatellite markers-and a secondary divide south of Kyrgyzstan around the Taklamakan Desert. Most noteworthy, we find that snow leopards have the lowest genetic diversity of any big cat species, likely due to a persistently small population size throughout their evolutionary history rather than recent inbreeding. We also find that snow leopards have significantly less highly deleterious homozygous load compared to numerous species, suggesting effective purging during their evolutionary history at small population sizes. Without a large population size or ample standing genetic variation to help buffer them from any forthcoming anthropogenic challenges, snow leopard persistence may be more tenuous than currently appreciated.</p>
},
	keywords = {Animals, Conservation of Natural Resources, Ecosystem, Felidae, Genetic Variation, Microsatellite Repeats, Panthera, Population Density},
	issn = {1091-6490},
	doi = {10.1073/pnas.2502584122},
	author = {Solari, Katherine A and Morgan, Simon and Poyarkov, Andrey D and Weckworth, Byron and Samelius, Gustaf and Sharma, Koustubh and Ostrowski, Stephane and Ramakrishnan, Uma and Kubanychbekov, Zairbek and Kachel, Shannon and Johansson, {\"O}rjan and Lkhagvajav, Purevjav and Hemmingmoore, Heather and Alexandrov, Dmitry Y and Bayaraa, Munkhtsog and Grachev, Alexey and Korablev, Miroslav P and Hernandez-Blanco, Jose A and Munkhtsog, Bariushaa and Rosenbaum, Barry and Rozhnov, Viatcheslav V and Madad Rajabi, Ali and Noori, Hafizullah and Suryawanshi, Kulbhushansingh R and Armstrong, Ellie E and Petrov, Dmitri A}
}
@article {149377,
	title = {Unraveling the genomic diversity and admixture history of captive tigers in the United States.},
	journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A},
	volume = {121},
	year = {2024},
	month = {2024 Sep 24},
	pages = {e2402924121},
	abstract = {<p>Genomic studies of endangered species have primarily focused on describing diversity patterns and resolving phylogenetic relationships, with the overarching goal of informing conservation efforts. However, few studies have investigated genomic diversity housed in captive populations. For tigers (), captive individuals vastly outnumber those in the wild, but their diversity remains largely unexplored. Privately owned captive tiger populations have remained an enigma in the conservation community, with some believing that these individuals are severely inbred, while others believe they may be a source of now-extinct diversity. Here, we present a large-scale genetic study of the private (non-zoo) captive tiger population in the United States, also known as "Generic" tigers. We find that the Generic tiger population has an admixture fingerprint comprising all six extant wild tiger subspecies. Of the 138 Generic individuals sequenced for the purpose of this study, no individual had ancestry from only one subspecies. We show that the Generic tiger population has a comparable amount of genetic diversity relative to most wild subspecies, few private variants, and fewer deleterious mutations. We observe inbreeding coefficients similar to wild populations, although there are some individuals within both the Generic and wild populations that are substantially inbred. Additionally, we develop a reference panel for tigers that can be used with imputation to accurately distinguish individuals and assign ancestry with ultralow coverage (0.25{\texttimes}) data. By providing a cost-effective alternative to whole-genome sequencing (WGS), the reference panel provides a resource to assist in tiger conservation efforts for both ex- and in situ populations.</p>
},
	keywords = {Animals, Animals, Zoo, Conservation of Natural Resources, Endangered Species, Genetic Variation, Genome, Genomics, Phylogeny, Tigers, United States},
	issn = {1091-6490},
	doi = {10.1073/pnas.2402924121},
	author = {Armstrong, Ellie E and Mooney, Jazlyn A and Solari, Katherine A and Kim, Bernard Y and Barsh, Gregory S and Grant, Victoria B and Greenbaum, Gili and Kaelin, Christopher B and Panchenko, Katya and Pickrell, Joseph K and Rosenberg, Noah and Ryder, Oliver A and Yokoyama, Tsuya and Ramakrishnan, Uma and Petrov, Dmitri A and Hadly, Elizabeth A}
}
