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Full-Text Articles in Genetics and Genomics

Analysis Of The Genetic Structure Of Bithynia Tentaculata Snail Populations In Wisconsin And Minnesota, Sarah J. Whalen Jan 2011

Analysis Of The Genetic Structure Of Bithynia Tentaculata Snail Populations In Wisconsin And Minnesota, Sarah J. Whalen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In recent years, there have been tens of thousands of waterfowl mortalities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. An invasive species of snail, Bithynia tentaculata, is a host for the trematode parasites (Cyathocotyle bushiensis and Sphaeridiotrema globulus) that have caused these deaths. A microsatellite-enriched genomic library was detected using DNA from a B. tentaculata specimen from Lake Onalaska (Pool 7 of the Upper Mississippi River). Seven polymorphic microsatellite loci were used to genotype snails collected from Lake Butte des Morts, Shawano Lake, and Lake Onalaska in Wisconsin, as well as Lake Winnibigoshish in Minnesota. The genetic diversity of each population was measured …


Evaluating Genetic Viability Of Pronghorn In Wind Cave National Park, Jonathan A. Jenks, Christopher N. Jacques, Jaret D. Sievers, Robert W. Klaver, R. Terry Bowyer, Daniel E. Roddy Sep 2006

Evaluating Genetic Viability Of Pronghorn In Wind Cave National Park, Jonathan A. Jenks, Christopher N. Jacques, Jaret D. Sievers, Robert W. Klaver, R. Terry Bowyer, Daniel E. Roddy

The Prairie Naturalist

The pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) was reintroduced into Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, in 1914 and thus, has inhabited the Park for almost a century. A decline in the population has raised concern for the continued existence of pronghorn inside Wind Cave National Park. Historically, pronghorn numbers reached greater than 300 individuals in the 1960's but declined to about 30 individuals by 2002. The primary objective of our study was to evaluate genetic characteristics of pronghorn to determine if reduced heterozygosity contributed to the decline of pronghorn in Wind Cave National Park. Microsatellite DNA was collected from 75 …


Genome Scans Of Dna Variability In Humans Reveal Evidence For Selective Sweeps Outside Of Africa, Jay F. Storz, Bret A. Payseur, Michael W. Nachman Jun 2004

Genome Scans Of Dna Variability In Humans Reveal Evidence For Selective Sweeps Outside Of Africa, Jay F. Storz, Bret A. Payseur, Michael W. Nachman

Jay F. Storz Publications

The last 50,000–150,000 years of human history have been characterized by rapid demographic expansions and the colonization of novel environments outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Mass migrations outside the ancestral species range likely entailed many new selection pressures, suggesting that genetic adaptation to local environmental conditions may have been more prevalent in colonizing populations outside of sub-Saharan Africa. Here we report a test of this hypothesis using genome-wide patterns of DNA polymorphism. We conducted a multilocus scan of microsatellite variability to identify regions of the human genome that may have been subject to continent-specific hitchhiking events. Using published polymorphism data for …


Contrasting Patterns Of Divergence In Quantitative Traits And Neutral Dna Markers: Analysis Of Clinal Variation, Jay F. Storz Dec 2002

Contrasting Patterns Of Divergence In Quantitative Traits And Neutral Dna Markers: Analysis Of Clinal Variation, Jay F. Storz

Jay F. Storz Publications

Clinal variation in quantitative traits is often attributed to the effects of spatially varying selection. However, identical patterns can be produced by the interplay between purely stochastic processes (i.e. drift in combination with spatially restricted gene flow). One means of distinguishing between adaptive and nonadaptive causes of geographical variation is to compare relative levels of between population divergence in quantitative traits and neutral DNA markers. Such comparisons can be used to test whether levels of trait divergence attributable to additive genetic effects (as measured by QST) exceed null expectations based on the level of divergence at neutral marker …


Genetic Effective Size Of A Wild Primate Population: Influence Of Current And Historical Demography, Jay F. Storz, Uma Ramakrishnan, Susan C. Alberts Sep 2002

Genetic Effective Size Of A Wild Primate Population: Influence Of Current And Historical Demography, Jay F. Storz, Uma Ramakrishnan, Susan C. Alberts

Jay F. Storz Publications

A comprehensive assessment of the determinants of effective population size (Ne) requires estimates of variance in lifetime reproductive success and past changes in census numbers. For natural populations, such information can be best obtained by combining longitudinal data on individual life histories and genetic marker-based inferences of demographic history. Independent estimates of the variance effective size (NeV, obtained from life-history data) and the inbreeding effective size (NeI, obtained from genetic data) provide a means of disentangling the effects of current and historical demography. The purpose of this study was to assess …


Testing For Genetic Evidence Of Population Expansion And Contraction: An Empirical Analysis Of Microsatellite Dna Variation Using A Hierarchical Bayesian Model, Jay F. Storz, Mark Beaumont Aug 2002

Testing For Genetic Evidence Of Population Expansion And Contraction: An Empirical Analysis Of Microsatellite Dna Variation Using A Hierarchical Bayesian Model, Jay F. Storz, Mark Beaumont

Jay F. Storz Publications

The role of past climatic change in shaping the distributions of tropical rain forest vertebrates is central to long-standing hypotheses about the legacy of the Quaternary ice ages. One approach to testing such hypotheses is to use genetic data to infer the demographic history of codistributed species. Population genetic theory that relates the structure of allelic genealogies to historical changes in effective population size can be used to detect a past history of demographic expansion or contraction. The fruit bats Cynopterus sphinx and C. brachyotis (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) exhibit markedly different distribution patterns across the Indomalayan region and therefore represent an …


Genetic Evidence For Long-Term Population Decline In A Savannah Dwelling Primate: Inferences From A Hierarchical Bayesian Model, Jay F. Storz, Mark A. Beaumont, Susan C. Alberts Jul 2002

Genetic Evidence For Long-Term Population Decline In A Savannah Dwelling Primate: Inferences From A Hierarchical Bayesian Model, Jay F. Storz, Mark A. Beaumont, Susan C. Alberts

Jay F. Storz Publications

The purpose of this study was to test for evidence that savannah baboons (Papio cynocephalus) underwent a population expansion in concert with a hypothesized expansion of African human and chimpanzee populations during the late Pleistocene. The rationale is that any type of environmental event sufficient to cause simultaneous population expansions in African humans and chimpanzees would also be expected to affect other codistributed mammals. To test for genetic evidence of population expansion or contraction, we performed a coalescent analysis of multilocus microsatellite data using a hierarchical Bayesian model. Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations were used to estimate …