A Novel Genetic Management Procedure for Preserving the Genetic Composition of Captive Founders

Maintaining the genetic composition of the captive founders is one of the essential tasks in ex situ captive breeding programs. Although minimization of the average coancestry of the current animals is the most widely accepted genetic management procedure when relationships among the captive founders are unknown (MC method), it has become possible to estimate the relatedness of the founders owing to the development of genotyping techniques and population genetics theory. In this study, we propose a novel genetic management procedure for preserving the genetic composition of captive founders that is applicable when the relatedness among them can be accurately estimated. The expression of genetic drift derived in this study suggested that Nei's minimum distance between the captive founders and the current animals is a key indicator for the novel genetic management. Computer simulation assuming unspecified organism indicated that the novel management preserves the original allele frequencies more effectively than the MC method, especially when the population size is contracting, and keeps the expected heterozygosity at a higher level, especially when the population size is expanding. We also exemplify the practical application of the proposed method by computer simulation using demographic data of the Oriental stork raised in Japan.