Abstract
Long-term sustainable and resilient populations is a key goal of conservation. How to best achieve this is controversial. There are, for instance, polarized views concerning the fitness and conservation value of hybrid populations founded through multi-origin translocations. A classic example concerns Apteryx (kiwi) in New Zealand. The A. mantelli of Ponui Island constitute a hybrid population where the birds are highly successful in their island habitat. A key dilemma for managers is understanding the reason for this success. Are the hybrid birds of Ponui Island of “no future conservation value” as recently asserted, or do they represent an outstanding example of genetic rescue and an important resource for future translocations? There has been a paradigm shift in scientific thinking concerning hybrids, but the ecological significance of admixed genomes remains difficult to assess. This limits what we can currently predict in conservation science. New understanding from genome science challenges the sufficiency of population genetic models to inform decision making and suggests instead that the contrasting outcomes of hybridization, “outbreeding depression” and “heterosis,” require understanding additional factors that modulate gene and protein expression and how these factors are influenced by the environment. We discuss these findings and the investigations that might help us to better understand the birds of Ponui, inform conservation management of kiwi and provide insight relevant for the future survival of Apteryx.
Highlights
The arrival of humans to New Zealand and the accompanying deforestation and predation by introduced mammals have decimated many native and endemic species (Holdaway, 1989; Robertson et al, 2016)
The outcome of translocations involving the mixing of individuals from genetically distinct populations remains difficult to predict and questions have been raised about the future fate and conservation value of admixed populations originating from such historic translocations
Other studies have found that inbred and outbred lines exhibit different epigenetic profiles and that manipulating these profiles can revert symptoms of inbreeding depression (Vergeer et al, 2012). These findings strongly suggest that accounting for both allelic and epigenetic variation is likely to be necessary to predict fitness outcomes for hybrid populations (Rey et al, 2020)
Summary
New understanding from genome science challenges the sufficiency of population genetic models to inform decision making and suggests instead that the contrasting outcomes of hybridization, “outbreeding depression” and “heterosis,” require understanding additional factors that modulate gene and protein expression and how these factors are influenced by the environment. We discuss these findings and the investigations that might help us to better understand the birds of Ponui, inform conservation management of kiwi and provide insight relevant for the future survival of Apteryx
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