Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is caused by prions, infectious proteinaceous particles, PrP. We sequenced the gene of 2,899 white-tailed deer (WTD) from Illinois and southern Wisconsin, finding 38 haplotypes. Haplotypes A, B, D, E, G and 9 others encoded QGSNAQ, designated 'PrP variant A.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIllegal hunting is a major threat to the elephants of Africa, with more elephants killed by poachers than die from natural causes. DNA from tusks has been used to infer the source populations for confiscated ivory, relying on nuclear genetic markers. However, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences can also provide information on the geographic origins of elephants due to female elephant philopatry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChronic wasting disease (CWD) is a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (TSE) that affects members of the cervidae family. The infectious agent is a misfolded isoform (PrP) of the host prion protein (PrP). The replication of PrP initiates a cascade of developmental changes that spread from cell to cell, individual to individual, and that for some TSEs, has crossed the species barrier.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFManaging and controlling the spread of diseases in wild animal populations is challenging, especially for social and mobile species. Effective management benefits from information about disease susceptibility, allowing limited resources to be focused on areas or populations with a higher risk of infection. Chronic wasting disease (CWD), a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy that affects cervids, was detected in Colorado in the late 1960s.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGigascience
June 2018
Mitochondrial DNA A DNA Mapp Seq Anal
September 2017
Solenodons are insectivores found only in Hispaniola and Cuba, with a Mesozoic divergence date versus extant mainland mammals. Solenodons are the oldest lineage of living eutherian mammal for which a mitogenome sequence has not been reported. We determined complete mitogenome sequences for six Hispaniolan solenodons (Solenodon paradoxus) using next-generation sequencing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe sequence of the prion protein gene (PRNP) affects susceptibility to spongiform encephalopathies, or prion diseases in many species. In white-tailed deer, both coding and non-coding single nucleotide polymorphisms have been identified in this gene that correlate to chronic wasting disease (CWD) susceptibility. Previous studies examined individual nucleotide or amino acid mutations; here we examine all nucleotide polymorphisms and their combined effects on CWD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe review DNA-based studies of elephants and recently extinct proboscideans. The evidence indicates that little or no nuclear gene flow occurs between African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana) and African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis), establishing that they comprise separate species. In all elephant species, males disperse, whereas females remain with their natal social group, leading to discordance in the phylogeography of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA patterns.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEritrea has one of the northernmost populations of African elephants. Only about 100 elephants persist in the Gash-Barka administrative zone. Elephants in Eritrea have become completely isolated, with no gene flow from other elephant populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPopulations of North American river otters (Lontra canadensis) declined throughout large portions of the continent during the early 1900s due to habitat degradation and unregulated trapping. River otters had been extirpated in North Dakota (ND), but the Red River Valley has since been recolonized, with potential source populations including the neighboring states of Minnesota or South Dakota, or the Canadian province of Manitoba (MB). We genotyped 9 microsatellite loci in 121 samples to determine the source population of river otters in the Red River Valley of ND, as well as to assess population structure and diversity of river otters in central North America.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAmong elephants, the phylogeographic patterns of mitochondrial (mt) and nuclear markers are often incongruent. One hypothesis attributes this to sex differences in dispersal and in the variance of reproductive success. We tested this hypothesis by examining the coalescent dates of genetic markers within elephantid lineages, predicting that lower dispersal and lower variance in reproductive success among females would have increased mtDNA relative to nuclear coalescent dates.
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