Genetic road map offers hope for threatened Visayan spotted deer
Scientists have sequenced the first-ever draft genome of the Philippines’ highly threatened Visayan spotted deer. The genome could guide efforts to save it from extinction, reports contributor Pippo Carmona for Mongabay. The Visayan spotted deer (Rusa alfredi) was once found across six islands in the central Philippines. But deforestation and hunting decimated its population, prompting […]
Scientists have sequenced the first-ever draft genome of the Visayan spotted deer, a highly threatened species native to the Philippines. The genome could aid efforts to save the deer from extinction, according to Pippo Carmona of Mongabay. Once widespread across six islands in the central Philippines, the Visayan spotted deer's population declined due to deforestation and hunting.
In 1988, the IUCN classified it as endangered, and by 2019, Philippine authorities listed it as nationally critically endangered. The last recorded count in 2016 was around 700 mature individuals, found only on Negros and Panay islands.
Researchers from Silliman University and the Philippine Genome Center Visayas collaborated to map the species' DNA using a tissue sample from Abraham, a captive Visayan spotted deer. The genome consists of 2.5 billion DNA letters and 24,531 genes. The researchers discovered Abraham's heterozygosity score, a measure of genetic differences, was just 0.17, significantly lower than the 0.3 score for healthy, genetically diverse wild populations. This low score suggests Abraham's parents were genetically closely related.
The low heterozygosity score indicates decades of isolation, allowing inbreeding. Albert Noblezada, who manages the bioinformatics pipeline at the Philippine Genome Center Visayas, explained that this inbreeding is due to the species' physical isolation.
Written by urgent.news from Mongabay's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
