A robust sequencing assay of a thousand amplicons for the high‐throughput population monitoring of Alpine ibex immunogenetics

Polymorphism for immune functions can explain significant variation in health and reproductive success within species. Drastic loss in genetic diversity at such loci constitutes an extinction risk and should be monitored in species of conservation concern. However, effective implementations of genome‐wide immune polymorphism sets into high‐throughput genotyping assays are scarce. Here, we report the design and validation of a microfluidics‐based amplicon sequencing assay to comprehensively capture genetic variation in Alpine ibex (Capra ibex). This species represents one of the most successful large mammal restorations recovering from a severely depressed census size and a massive loss in diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). We analysed 65 whole‐genome sequencing sets of the Alpine ibex and related species to select the most representative markers and to prevent primer binding failures. In total, we designed ~1,000 amplicons densely covering the MHC, further immunity‐related genes as well as randomly selected genome‐wide markers for the assessment of neutral population structure. Our analysis of 158 individuals shows that the genome‐wide markers perform equally well at resolving population structure as RAD‐sequencing or low‐coverage genome sequencing data sets. Immunity‐related loci show unexpectedly high degrees of genetic differentiation within the species. Such information can now be used to define highly targeted individual translocations. Our design strategy can be realistically implemented into genetic surveys of a large range of species. In conclusion, leveraging whole‐genome sequencing data sets to design targeted amplicon assays allows the simultaneous monitoring of multiple genetic risk factors and can be translated into species conservation recommendations.