| Symposium proposal |
| Organizer: | Li Yu (Yunnan University) |
| Co-organizer: | Yibo Hu (Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences) |
| At the beginning of its establishment, conservation biology aims to study the protection of species, populations, communities and ecosystems under the crisis of biodiversity loss. Now it gradually evolves from the macro level of ecology and behavior to the molecular level of physiology, genetics, genomics and adaptive evolution. More and more researches focus on the evolutionary history and driving causes, adaptive evolution and evolutionary potential of wildlife. Conservation evolutionary biology integrates the principles and methods of evolutionary biology into the conservation biology research, aiming to explore the past, present and future of species evolution and reveal how species adapt to and respond to environmental changes to ensure long-term survival, as well as to understand the process and mechanisms of species endangerment from the perspective of evolution. The invited speakers for this symposium have made excellent achievements on the conservation evolutionary biology study of endangered species, including the giant panda, the tiger and the pangolin. The symposium will welcome contributed talks from researchers working on any endangered group of wild animals, and will include but are not limited to the below subjects: Conservation genetics, Conservation genomics, Conservation metagenomics, Adaptive evolution of wild animals |
S12-1
Conservation evolutionary biology of giant pandas
Wei Fuwen1
1Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
The evolutionary history, endangered mechanism and adaptive evolution of endangered species are the key research focuses of conservation biology, which help understand the evolutionary past, present and future of species and provide scientific basis for conservation decisions. The giant panda is an ideal model for studying animal endangered mechanism and adaptive evolution. Using the giant panda as the study object, we pioneered the fields of conservation genomics and conservation metagenomics of endangered wild animals. The results clarified the demographic history, endangered causes, and evolutionary potential of giant pandas, and revealed the morphological, behavioral, physiological, genetic and gut microbiota adaptations to specialized bamboo diet in giant pandas. Our findings not only facilitate the implementation of national projects for giant panda reintroduction and habitat corridor construction, but also provide new insights into the adaptive mechanisms of diet specialization of wild animals.
S12-2
Genomics Advances: lessons for wildlife conservation
Agostinho Antunes1
1CIIMAR, Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, University of Porto, Portugal
2Department of Biology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal
Whole genome sequencing projects can be fundamental to understand health, genetic disease, species evolution, biodiversity and conservation. Currently, numerous species are having their genomes completely sequenced, from simple organisms (e.g. microorganisms), to higher vertebrates (such as birds and mammals). Such extensive sequencing data generated across multiple organisms can elucidate the genetic uniqueness of the studied species, infer evolutionary histories and patterns of genetic diversity, which are highly valuable for managing species conservation effectively in-situ and ex-situ. Recent advances in next-generation genomics for conservation of biodiversity will be discussed, with emphasis on charismatic case studies comprehending several endangered species from Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
S12-3
Evolution and Conservation Genomics of the Tiger
Shujin Luo1
1The State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Peking-Tsinghua Center for Life Sciences, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Genome-wide evolutionary analysis has affirmed intraspecific distinction that supported six living subspecies in the tiger, whose free-ranging population has dwindled from over 100,000 individuals in the 1900s to fewer than 4,000 to date. The oldest tiger fossil was dated at 2-3 Mya, however TMRCA of modern tigers was traced to only 110 kya, suggesting a Late Pleistocene bottleneck and complex demographic dynamics, which can only be unraveled through analysis of the extinct tigers. Here we retrieved the first ancient tiger genome, at an 8.3x genome coverage, of a ~10,000-year-old bone (radiocarbon date of 10,582–10,399 cal BP with ± 2σ at 95.4% probability) uncovered from the Russian Far East (RFE), as well as whole genome information from centuries-old South China tigers (P. t. amoyensis, N=12) and Caspian tigers (P. t. virgata, N=3) to represent historical tiger populations across mainland Asian. In conjunction with published genome sequences from 32 extant voucher tiger specimens, genome-wide phylogeny supported P. t. amoyensis as a statistically robust clade relative to other subspecies, albeit its mitochondrial paraphyly, resolving the long-lasting taxonomic controversy in the South China tiger. The ancient RFE tiger carried a basal mitochondrial lineage distinct from modern Amur tigers (P. t. altaica), however clustered in the autosomal tree within the northeast Asian phylogroups including P. t. amoyensis and P. t. altaica. At last, P. t. virgata of central Asia originated from tigers in the RFE expanding westbound via Siberia and subsequently had genetic introgression from Bengal tigers to the south. Ancient tiger genomes illuminated that mainland China served as a Late Pleistocene refugia for relic tiger lineages and multiple range contraction-expansion-isolation cycles during the Last Glacial Period have led to phylogeographic partitioning and distinction of living tiger subspecies.
S12-4
Comparative phylogenetic and genomic analysis reveal the natural longevity and cancer suppression in cetaceans
Shixia Xu1, Zhenpeng Yu1
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biodiversity and Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210023, China
Cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are ideal model for the research of extended longevity in mammals because the top 1% longest-lived mammals (10 species) are all large whales, except humans. However, the evolution history of longevity extending across cetacean phylogeny and its molecular basis is not well understood. Here, we first reconstructed the evolution of cetacean longevity and found that extreme longevity evolved independently at least five times across cetacean lineages. Then, the phylogenetic regression uncovered that four cetacean life history-traits, including body size, gestation length, inter-litter interval and number of offspring per year were significantly related to their longevity. In addition, PGLS regression revealed that molecular evolutionary rates of 726 orthologous genes from 17 cetacean high-quality genomes were significantly related to three longevity-associated traits (MLS, LQ, and BM). Interestingly, the large and long-lived cetacean lineages were identified to have parallel amino acid mutations involved in cancer suppression related genes, suggesting that large cetaceans might have evolved convergent mechanisms of cancer resistance to extend their longevity, which is consistent with Peto’s paradox. Overall, these findings provide evidence of extreme longevity evolution in cetaceans and bring new insights into the genetic basis of its natural longevity.
S12-5
Conservition genetics of pangolins
Hu Jingyang1, Hao Zhiqian2, Li Haipeng2, Zhang Yaping1, Yu Li1
1State Key Laboratory for Conservation and Utilization of Bio-Resource in Yunnan, School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, Kunming 650091, China
2CAS Key Laboratory of Computational Biology, CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China
Pangolins are among the most critically endangered animals due to heavy poaching and worldwide trafficking. However, their demographic histories and the genomic consequences of their recent population declines remain unknown. We generated high-quality de novo reference genomes for critically endangered Malayan (Manis javanica, MJ) and Chinese (M. pentadactyla, MP) pangolins and re-sequencing population genomic data from 74 MJs and 23 MPs. We recovered the population identities of illegally traded pangolins and previously unrecognized genetic populations that should be protected as evolutionarily distinct conservation units. Demographic reconstruction suggested environmental changes have resulted in a population size fluctuation of pangolins. Additionally, recent population size declines due to human activities have resulted in an increase in inbreeding and genetic load. Deleterious mutations were enriched in genes related to cancer/diseases and cholesterol homeostasis, which may have increased their susceptibility to diseases and decreased their survival potential to adapt to environmental changes and high-cholesterol diets. This comprehensive study provides not only high-quality pangolin reference genomes, but also valuable information concerning the driving factors of long-term population size fluctuations and the genomic impact of recent population size declines due to human activities, which is essential for pangolin conservation management and global action planning.
