
@article {162686,
	title = {Conservation Genomics-Making a Difference.},
	journal = {Mol Ecol},
	volume = {34},
	year = {2025},
	month = {2025 Dec},
	pages = {e70191},
	abstract = {<p>Conservation genomics has increasingly transitioned from a promising concept to a science that integrates a range of advanced analytical approaches, providing new insights into inbreeding, genetic load, demographic history and adaptive divergence in species of conservation concern. Yet, questions remain about how effectively these advances translate into practical conservation action. This Special Issue, Conservation Genomics-Making a Difference, brings together 37 papers that collectively assess how genomic data are contributing to conservation science and management. The contributions encompass empirical studies, reviews, and perspectives that together demonstrate how genomic tools are now used to identify management units, quantify inbreeding, analyse inbreeding depression, reveal adaptive variation, forecast genomic vulnerability under climate change, and guide genetic rescue and assisted migration. Several papers show direct integration of genomics into conservation planning, including fisheries management, guiding restoration of endangered or habitat-forming species, and monitoring of genetic indicators under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Others highlight emerging questions in conservation, such as the significance of structural variation, and the genomic basis of invasiveness. However, persistent challenges remain, notably in bridging the gap between research and policy, uneven global distribution of genomic resources, and translating complex analyses into practical management advice. Nevertheless, the advances presented in the 37 papers show that conservation genomics is moving beyond its early theoretical and technical focus towards real-world applications. The field is maturing and is increasingly fulfilling its promise to make a real difference for populations, species, and ecosystems.</p>
},
	keywords = {Animals, Conservation of Natural Resources, Endangered Species, Genetics, Population, Genomics, Inbreeding},
	issn = {1365-294X},
	doi = {10.1111/mec.70191},
	author = {Hansen, Michael M and Edwards, Christine and Grossen, Christine and Kardos, Marty and Laikre, Linda and Ramakrishnan, Uma}
}
@article {103406,
	title = {Genomic evidence for inbreeding depression and purging of deleterious genetic variation in Indian tigers.},
	journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A},
	volume = {118},
	year = {2021},
	month = {2021 Dec 07},
	abstract = {<p>Increasing habitat fragmentation leads to wild populations becoming small, isolated, and threatened by inbreeding depression. However, small populations may be able to purge recessive deleterious alleles as they become expressed in homozygotes, thus reducing inbreeding depression and increasing population viability. We used whole-genome sequences from 57 tigers to estimate individual inbreeding and mutation load in a small-isolated and two large-connected populations in India. As expected, the small-isolated population had substantially higher average genomic inbreeding ( = 0.57) than the large-connected ( = 0.35 and = 0.46) populations. The small-isolated population had the lowest loss-of-function mutation load, likely due to purging of highly deleterious recessive mutations. The large populations had lower missense mutation loads than the small-isolated population, but were not identical, possibly due to different demographic histories. While the number of the loss-of-function alleles in the small-isolated population was lower, these alleles were at higher frequencies and homozygosity than in the large populations. Together, our data and analyses provide evidence of 1) high mutation load, 2) purging, and 3) the highest predicted inbreeding depression, despite purging, in the small-isolated population. Frequency distributions of damaging and neutral alleles uncover genomic evidence that purifying selection has removed part of the mutation load across Indian tiger populations. These results provide genomic evidence for purifying selection in both small and large populations, but also suggest that the remaining deleterious alleles may have inbreeding-associated fitness costs. We suggest that genetic rescue from sources selected based on genome-wide differentiation could offset any possible impacts of inbreeding depression.</p>
},
	issn = {1091-6490},
	doi = {10.1073/pnas.2023018118},
	author = {Khan, Anubhab and Patel, Kaushalkumar and Shukla, Harsh and Viswanathan, Ashwin and van der Valk, Tom and Borthakur, Udayan and Nigam, Parag and Zachariah, Arun and Jhala, Yadavendradev V and Kardos, Marty and Ramakrishnan, Uma}
}
