Question

Q. Describe ways, besides monitoring genetic diversity, that genetics can be used to facilitate animal conservation.

Answer 1

Conservation genetics integrates the fields of population genetics,molecular and evolutionary biology, taxonomy as well as ecology to comprehend the genetic dynamics in a population to circumvent extinction.

1.It records the heterozygosity and identifies polymorphic loci in a particular population. For instance, the work may deal with identifying
Homozygous individuals produced by inbreeding as they have reduced fitness (inbreeding depression). Increased homozygosity "unmasks" the adverse phenotype of recessive alleles. Increase in homozygous loci will also reduce the chances of formation of recombinants during meiotic crossovers. Consequently, this reduces the efficiency of natural selection.
2. The efforts may deal with identifying populations exposed to genetic drift- in other words, the chance eradication of specific genes in a small population due to the sudden death of the individuals harboring the genes.
3.It might also deal with identification and reclassification of species into proper taxonomic positions such that conservation efforts can be restructured.
4. Efforts might be targeted towards the identification of outbreeding depression or instances when crosses between genetically distant populations result in aborted or infertile progeny.