Publications by authors named "D P Mindell"
Article Synopsis
- Resource managers often believe increasing genetic diversity is crucial for preventing extinction in small populations, but this might not always be necessary.
- A study on the peregrine falcon showed that nonmigratory and island populations had lower genomic diversity and higher inbreeding, yet inbreeding might not be a significant threat for all populations.
- The findings suggest that factors like population decline history may be more important to consider than just genetic diversity when making conservation decisions.
Article Synopsis
- Robinson and colleagues address the criticisms presented by Bakker et al. regarding their research findings.
- They clarify the methodology and rationale used in their study to strengthen their arguments.
- The response aims to resolve misunderstandings and provide a clearer perspective on their conclusions.
Due to their small population sizes, threatened and endangered species frequently suffer from a lack of genetic diversity, potentially leading to inbreeding depression and reduced adaptability. During the latter half of the twentieth century, North America's largest soaring bird, the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus; Critically Endangered), briefly went extinct in the wild. Though condors once ranged throughout North America, by 1982 only 22 individuals remained.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Birds of prey (raptors) are dominant apex predators in terrestrial communities, with hawks (Accipitriformes) and falcons (Falconiformes) hunting by day and owls (Strigiformes) hunting by night.
Results: Here, we report new genomes and transcriptomes for 20 species of birds, including 16 species of birds of prey, and high-quality reference genomes for the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo), oriental scops owl (Otus sunia), eastern buzzard (Buteo japonicus), and common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). Our extensive genomic analysis and comparisons with non-raptor genomes identify common molecular signatures that underpin anatomical structure and sensory, muscle, circulatory, and respiratory systems related to a predatory lifestyle.
We report here the assembly of a northern spotted owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) genome. We generated Illumina paired-end sequence data at 90× coverage using nine libraries with insert lengths ranging from ∼250 to 9,600 nt and read lengths from 100 to 375 nt. The genome assembly is comprised of 8,108 scaffolds totaling 1.
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