Admixture between historically isolated mitochondrial lineages in captive Western gorillas: recommendations for future management.

ABSTRACT: Although captive populations of western gorilla have been maintained in the United States for over a century, little is known about the geographic origins and genetic composition of the current zoo population. Furthermore, although previous mitochondrial analyses have shown that free-range gorilla populations exhibit substantial regional differentiation, nothing is known of the extent to which this variation has been preserved in captive populations. To address these questions, we combined 379 pedigree records with data from 52 mitochondrial sequences to infer individual haplogroup affiliations, geographical origin of wild founders and instances of inter-breeding between haplogroups in the United States captive gorilla population. We show that the current captive population contains all ma

SUBMITTER: Soto-Calderon ID 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4406269 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May-Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature