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Section: Evolutionary Biology
Topic: Evolution, Genetics/Genomics, Population biology

Lacking conservation genomics in the giant Galápagos tortoise

Loire, Etienne1 ; Galtier, Nicolas2  
1 Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), UMR CMAEE and C2B, Montpellier, France
2 ISEM - Univ Montpellier - CNRS - IRD, Montpellier, France

10.24072/pcjournal.24 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 1 (2021), article no. e18.

Get full text PDF Peer reviewed and recommended by PCI

Conservation policy in the giant Galpagos tortoise, an iconic endangered animal, has been assisted by genetic markers for 15 years: a dozen loci have been used to delineate thirteen (sub)species, between which hybridization is prevented. Here, comparative reanalysis of a previously published NGS data set reveals a conflict with traditional markers. Genetic diversity and population substructure in the giant Galpagos tortoise are found to be particularly low, questioning the genetic relevance of current conservation practices. Further examination of giant Galapagos tortoise population genomics is critically needed.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.24
Type: Research article
Loire, Etienne 1; Galtier, Nicolas 2

1 Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), UMR CMAEE and C2B, Montpellier, France
2 ISEM - Univ Montpellier - CNRS - IRD, Montpellier, France
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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Loire, Etienne; Galtier, Nicolas. Lacking conservation genomics in the giant Galápagos tortoise. Peer Community Journal, Volume 1 (2021), article  no. e18. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.24. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.24/

Peer reviewed and recommended by PCI : 10.24072/pci.evolbiol.100031

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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