Cargando…
How Ebola Impacts Genetics of Western Lowland Gorilla Populations
BACKGROUND: Emerging infectious diseases in wildlife are major threats for both human health and biodiversity conservation. Infectious diseases can have serious consequences for the genetic diversity of populations, which could enhance the species' extinction probability. The Ebola epizootic in...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2009
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2791222/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20020045 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008375 |
_version_ | 1782175173634424832 |
---|---|
author | Le Gouar, Pascaline J. Vallet, Dominique David, Laetitia Bermejo, Magdalena Gatti, Sylvain Levréro, Florence Petit, Eric J. Ménard, Nelly |
author_facet | Le Gouar, Pascaline J. Vallet, Dominique David, Laetitia Bermejo, Magdalena Gatti, Sylvain Levréro, Florence Petit, Eric J. Ménard, Nelly |
author_sort | Le Gouar, Pascaline J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Emerging infectious diseases in wildlife are major threats for both human health and biodiversity conservation. Infectious diseases can have serious consequences for the genetic diversity of populations, which could enhance the species' extinction probability. The Ebola epizootic in western and central Africa induced more than 90% mortality in Western lowland gorilla population. Although mortality rates are very high, the impacts of Ebola on genetic diversity of Western lowland gorilla have never been assessed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We carried out long term studies of three populations of Western lowland gorilla in the Republic of the Congo (Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Lossi gorilla sanctuary both affected by Ebola and Lossi's periphery not affected). Using 17 microsatellite loci, we compared genetic diversity and structure of the populations and estimate their effective size before and after Ebola outbreaks. Despite the effective size decline in both populations, we did not detect loss in genetic diversity after the epizootic. We revealed temporal changes in allele frequencies in the smallest population. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Immigration and short time elapsed since outbreaks could explain the conservation of genetic diversity after the demographic crash. Temporal changes in allele frequencies could not be explained by genetic drift or random sampling. Immigration from genetically differentiated populations and a non random mortality induced by Ebola, i.e., selective pressure and cost of sociality, are alternative hypotheses. Understanding the influence of Ebola on gorilla genetic dynamics is of paramount importance for human health, primate evolution and conservation biology. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2791222 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2009 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-27912222009-12-18 How Ebola Impacts Genetics of Western Lowland Gorilla Populations Le Gouar, Pascaline J. Vallet, Dominique David, Laetitia Bermejo, Magdalena Gatti, Sylvain Levréro, Florence Petit, Eric J. Ménard, Nelly PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Emerging infectious diseases in wildlife are major threats for both human health and biodiversity conservation. Infectious diseases can have serious consequences for the genetic diversity of populations, which could enhance the species' extinction probability. The Ebola epizootic in western and central Africa induced more than 90% mortality in Western lowland gorilla population. Although mortality rates are very high, the impacts of Ebola on genetic diversity of Western lowland gorilla have never been assessed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We carried out long term studies of three populations of Western lowland gorilla in the Republic of the Congo (Odzala-Kokoua National Park, Lossi gorilla sanctuary both affected by Ebola and Lossi's periphery not affected). Using 17 microsatellite loci, we compared genetic diversity and structure of the populations and estimate their effective size before and after Ebola outbreaks. Despite the effective size decline in both populations, we did not detect loss in genetic diversity after the epizootic. We revealed temporal changes in allele frequencies in the smallest population. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Immigration and short time elapsed since outbreaks could explain the conservation of genetic diversity after the demographic crash. Temporal changes in allele frequencies could not be explained by genetic drift or random sampling. Immigration from genetically differentiated populations and a non random mortality induced by Ebola, i.e., selective pressure and cost of sociality, are alternative hypotheses. Understanding the influence of Ebola on gorilla genetic dynamics is of paramount importance for human health, primate evolution and conservation biology. Public Library of Science 2009-12-18 /pmc/articles/PMC2791222/ /pubmed/20020045 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008375 Text en Le Gouar et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Le Gouar, Pascaline J. Vallet, Dominique David, Laetitia Bermejo, Magdalena Gatti, Sylvain Levréro, Florence Petit, Eric J. Ménard, Nelly How Ebola Impacts Genetics of Western Lowland Gorilla Populations |
title | How Ebola Impacts Genetics of Western Lowland Gorilla Populations |
title_full | How Ebola Impacts Genetics of Western Lowland Gorilla Populations |
title_fullStr | How Ebola Impacts Genetics of Western Lowland Gorilla Populations |
title_full_unstemmed | How Ebola Impacts Genetics of Western Lowland Gorilla Populations |
title_short | How Ebola Impacts Genetics of Western Lowland Gorilla Populations |
title_sort | how ebola impacts genetics of western lowland gorilla populations |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2791222/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20020045 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0008375 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT legouarpascalinej howebolaimpactsgeneticsofwesternlowlandgorillapopulations AT valletdominique howebolaimpactsgeneticsofwesternlowlandgorillapopulations AT davidlaetitia howebolaimpactsgeneticsofwesternlowlandgorillapopulations AT bermejomagdalena howebolaimpactsgeneticsofwesternlowlandgorillapopulations AT gattisylvain howebolaimpactsgeneticsofwesternlowlandgorillapopulations AT levreroflorence howebolaimpactsgeneticsofwesternlowlandgorillapopulations AT petitericj howebolaimpactsgeneticsofwesternlowlandgorillapopulations AT menardnelly howebolaimpactsgeneticsofwesternlowlandgorillapopulations |