Background: In late 2019, the World Health Organization declared Coronavirus disease 2019 a global emergency. Since then, many vaccines have been developed to combat the pandemic. Millions of people have received one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines; unfortunately, some adverse events also have been recorded.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong homozygous chromosome segments are known as runs of homozygosity (ROH); these reflect patterns of identity by descent and can be used to measure individual inbreeding, map recessive traits, and reconstruct demographic histories. Here, we review some key considerations with ROH detection and the inferences pertaining to inbreeding and demographic analyses in wild populations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiologists have long sought to understand the impacts of deleterious genetic variation on fitness and population viability. However, our understanding of these effects in the wild is incomplete, in part due to the rarity of sufficient genetic and demographic data needed to measure their impact. The genomics revolution is promising a potential solution by predicting the effects of deleterious genetic variants (genetic load) bioinformatically from genome sequences alone bypassing the need for costly demographic data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnderstanding the genetic and fitness consequences of anthropogenic bottlenecks is crucial for biodiversity conservation. However, studies of bottlenecked populations combining genomic approaches with fitness data are rare. Theory predicts that severe bottlenecks deplete genetic diversity, exacerbate inbreeding depression and decrease population viability.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLinking genetic diversity to extinction is a common goal in genomic studies. Recently, a debate has arisen regarding the importance of genetic variation in conservation as some studies have failed to find associations between genome-wide genetic diversity and extinction risk. However, only rarely are genetic diversity and fitness measured together in the wild, and typically demographic history and environment are ignored.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF