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Conservation Genetics pp 187–204Cite as

Birkhäuser

Rare alleles, MHC and captive breeding

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Part of the book series: EXS ((EXS,volume 68))

Summary

In recent years, more detailed genetic information has become available for individuals of endangered species in captive breeding programs. There have been suggestions that this information be used to identify rare alleles, particularly those at the MHC, that can be subsequently selected for captive breeding programs. First, we summarize the current information on the MHC relevant to conservation genetics, so that such a possible breeding program is seen in a proper perspective. For example, very few specific alleles at the MHC have been identified as selectively advantageous, even though there has been substantial effort to find such alleles in humans and a few other organisms. Further, many of the balancing selection models suggested for MHC variation are based on heterozygotes in general having a higher fitness than homozygotes and not on specific selectively advantageous alleles.

Because there is no detailed data on MHC variability in captive populations, we used transferrin data in Przewalski’s horses to evaluate a breeding program to select for rare alleles. In this species, one individual, 1060, has been identified to have the transferrin allele J. We determine the effect on founder contribution of multiply mating 1060 to increase the number of copies of this allele. Since there were 485 individuals in the population at this time, this extra mating had little detrimental effect on the distribution of founder contributions and the number of founder equivalents. We then selected 65, an ancestor of 1060, which had a high likelihood of being the individual that passed on the J allele in the lineage of 1060. We examined the effect of increasing the number of copies of alleles of 65 at a time when the population had only 22 other individuals. In this case, even though the founder contributions were changed more, there was also little effect on the founder contributions and the number of founder equivalents. Overall, it appears that selection that results in a limited change in the number of copies of rare alleles may not always have an overall detrimental effect. However, because other pedigrees may have very different properties, it is essential to perform a detailed pedigree analysis of any such selective breeding program to determine its effect before such a selection program is implemented.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Zoology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

    P. W. Hedrick & P. S. Miller

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  1. P. W. Hedrick
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  2. P. S. Miller
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Ecology and Genetics, University of Aarhus Ny Munkegade, Building 540, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    V. Loeschcke

  2. Department of Agronomy and Range Sciences, University of California, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    S. K. Jain

  3. Section of Clinical Genetics, University of Tübingen, Wilhelmstr. 27, D-72074, Tübingen, Germany

    J. Tomiuk

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© 1994 Springer Basel AG

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Hedrick, P.W., Miller, P.S. (1994). Rare alleles, MHC and captive breeding. In: Loeschcke, V., Jain, S.K., Tomiuk, J. (eds) Conservation Genetics. EXS, vol 68. Birkhäuser, Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8510-2_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-8510-2_16

  • Publisher Name: Birkhäuser, Basel

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-0348-9657-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-0348-8510-2

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