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Reproductive and genetic consequences of founding isolated lion populations
Open accessAbstract
Species survival is critically dependent on reproductive performance, a complex physiological process under rigorous genetic control. Classical studies of inbreeding in laboratory animals and livestock have shown that increased homozygosity can adversely affect spermatogenesis, ovulation and perinatal mortality and morbidity1–3. For wild populations, the consequences of inbreeding depression have not been examined intensively, although our recent studies of the African cheetah revealed a striking degree of genetic uniformity4,5 combined with an extremely high incidence of structurally abnormal spermatozoa (>70%) in captive6 as well as free-ranging7 males. In this study, we report definitive evidence that the reproductive function of free-ranging mammals can be impaired as a result of demographic contraction followed by inbreeding. In an examination of three distinct lion populations (two from the Serengeti ecosystem in East Africa and a third descended from lions in the Gir Forest of western India), a direct correlation was observed between genetic variability and two physiological traits, incidence of abnormal sperm and circulating testosterone, a critical hormone for spermatogenesis.
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Citations
Cited by
Male-male competition magnifies inbreeding depression in wild house mice.
Meagher, S., Penn, D. J., & Potts, W. K. (2000) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.97.7.3324 · Cited by 322
Genomic legacy of the African cheetah, Acinonyx jubatus
Dobrynin, P., Liu, S., Tamazian, G., Xiong, Z., Yurchenko, A. A., Krasheninnikova, K., Kliver, S., Schmidt-Küntzel, A., Koepfli, K.-P., Johnson, W., et al. (2015) · Genome Biology · doi:10.1186/s13059-015-0837-4 · Cited by 204
Self-citationThe behavioral ecology of cultural psychological variation.
Sng, O., Neuberg, S. L., Varnum, M. E. W., & Kenrick, D. T. (2018) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/rev0000104 · Cited by 157
Reduced heterozygosity impairs sperm quality in endangered mammals
Fitzpatrick, J. L., & Evans, J. P. (2009) · Biology Letters · doi:10.1098/rsbl.2008.0734 · Cited by 105
Miller, S. M., Bissett, C., Burger, A., Courtenay, B., Dickerson, T., Druce, D. J., Ferreira, S., Funston, P. J., Hofmeyr, D., Kilian, P. J., et al. (2013) · South African Journal of Wildlife Research · doi:10.3957/056.043.0202 · Cited by 79
Metadata
- Authors
- Wildt, D. E., Bush, M., Goodrowe, K. L., Packer, C., Pusey, A. E., Brown, J. L., Joslin, P., & O'Brien, S. J.
- Venue
- Nature
- Published
- 1987-09-24
- Volume
- 329
- Issue
- 6137
- Pages
- 328-331
- ISSN
- 0028-0836 (ISSN-L)
- 1476-4687
- OpenAlex
- W2013022273
- Cited by
- 400
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 4.19
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
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- Wildt, D. E., Bush, M., Goodrowe, K. L., Packer, C., Pusey, A. E., Brown, J. L., Joslin, P., & O'Brien, S. J. (1987). Reproductive and genetic consequences of founding isolated lion populations. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/329328a0
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
