Heterozygosity decrease in wild boar mating system - a case of outbreeding avoidance?

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2017

Authors

Perez Gonzalez, J (Author) Other; Costa, V (Author) Other; Santos, P (Author) Other; Carranza, J (Author) Other; Zsolnai, A (Author) Other; Fernandez Llario, P (Author) Other; Monteiro, NM (Author) FCUP; Anton, I (Author) Other; beja-pereira, a (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Journal of Zoology

Vol. 302

Pages: 40-48

ISSN: 0952-8369

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 3 Citations

Scopus - 3 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-00M-R43

DOI: 10.1111/jzo.12426

Abstract (EN): In sexually reproducing organisms, the specific combinations of parental alleles can have important consequences on offspring viability and fitness. Accordingly, genetic relationship between mates can be used as a criterion for mate choice. Here, we used microsatellite genetic markers to estimate the genetic relationship between mating pairs in the wild boar, Sus scrofa. Males, females and foetuses proceeding from Portugal, Spain and Hungary were genotyped using 14 microsatellite markers. The genetic relationship between mates was estimated using different measures of foetus heterozygosity. We found that the observed heterozygosity of foetuses was lower than that expected under random mating. This result occurred mainly when Sd(2) (relatedness of parental genomes) was used as the heterozygosity measure. After simulations, we concluded that the observed low heterozygosity was possibly due to outbreeding avoidance. Outbreeding avoidance based on genetically different genomes might play an important role in species evolution and its genetic conservation.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9