Desenvolvimento de marcadores genômicos para análises genéticas, ecológicas e forenses de onças-pintadas (Panthera onca)

Abstract

Wildlife management demands powerful tools to monitor and protect biodiversity as it rapidly declines. In this context, the field of genomics has brought new possibilities for the development of simple and cost-effective tools based on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which improve genetic estimates compared to traditional markers, such as microsatellites. The use of SNP panels selected and optimized from large genomic data sets has a great potential for conservation efforts for elusive and threatened species, such as the jaguar (Panthera onca), the largest felid in the Americas and an umbrella species for biodiversity conservation. In this study, we identified and selected highly informative SNPs for geographic traceability, individual identification, kinship and sexing, from a dataset of 58 complete jaguar genomes. Through rigorous filtering, 459 SNPs were chosen from 13,373,949 markers, based on the inter-biome FST, to make up a panel along with 8 additional, sex-linked SNPs. From this panel, we randomly selected subsets and identified one with only 84 SNPs that exhibited a similar resolving power to the full panel. Both panels achieved an accuracy of 98% regarding the biome of origin of the samples and 65-69% of them were assigned to within 500 km of their actual origin. With respect to individual identification, we observed that 10-18 of the selected SNPs are sufficient to differentiate individuals, while 6 sex-linked SNPs are able to correctly separate males and females. Finally, through in-silico validation, it was also possible to correctly recover the genealogical relationships among individuals, highlighting the multifunctionality of these markers and their potential for the development of genotyping assays as a tool for forensic, genetic and ecological questions involving jaguars