Genetic analyses in the Japanese captive population of Japanese crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) using pedigree information

Abstract

The Japanese captive population of Japanese crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) was established using 5 founders derived from the Chinese captive population. Its size has increased rapidly, and the maintenance phase is about to start. Thus, this study was designed to perform genetic analyses in this population with pedigree information, considering the adoption of mean kinship strategy as the breeding strategy suited to the maintenance phase. Because the relationships among the 5 founders were unknown, different assumptions were set up ranging from 0 to 0.25 of kinship coefficients between the 5 founders. Assuming that the 5 founders were non-inbred in all the assumptions, the results showed that the gene diversity and the mean inbreeding coefficient would fluctuate largely from ∼65% to ∼82% and from ∼0.07 to ∼0.29, respectively. Moreover, the genetic importance of individuals based on mean kinship shifted largely. This study suggested that the Japanese captive population had low gene diversity and high mean inbreeding coefficient even under the assumption that the 5 founders were unrelated and non-inbred. In addition, the study also suggested that it became more effective to analyze the genetic status and to introduce mean kinship strategy into this population with more credible molecular evaluation of the relationships among founders.