Genome resource banking for species conservation: selection of sperm donors

The systematic banking of genome resources using cryopreserved germ plasm offers the opportunity to further conservation strategies of endangered species by assisting in the effective genetic management of captive populations. Cryopreserved germ plasm will allow indefinite preservation of the presently available gene diversity represented in either captive or wild populations. If properly utilized, genome resource banks have the potential to decelerate the loss of gene and allelic diversity in captive populations through reintroducing "original" genetic material through time to counter genetic drift. However, in order for any genome resource bank to be effective, strategies need to be developed to identify genetically valuable individuals to bank which will represent optimal gene diversity of the specific population. Four selection strategies were evaluated to identify individual donors from four North American captive populations representing differently structured pedigrees. The strategies consisted of selecting: (1) all males in the population ("All Male Bank"); (2) only living founders and early generation descendents ("Founder Method Bank," FMB); (3) males remaining after culling to minimize mean kinship ("Culled Male Bank 1"); and (4) males remaining after culling to minimize mean kinship, with the males reduced to the number in the FMB ("Culled Male Bank 2"). The effectiveness of each strategy was based on the comparison of genetic variation metrics in each bank with the genetic variation in the present living managed population. Although maximal retention of allelic diversity was achieved by banking genes from all living animals, nearly optimal retention of allelic and gene diversity was obtained by utilizing the selection strategy based on minimizing mean kinships. As a consequence, properly designed and utilized, genome resource banks can become effective tools for preserving gene diversity in future generations of living populations.